


Glassy Sky

by soundoutz



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Afterlife, Blood and Gore, F/F, Ghosts, Guilt, No Romance, Wendigo, sorry lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23618095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soundoutz/pseuds/soundoutz
Summary: When Chaewon wakes up as a ghost, all hope is lost. It isn't until she makes a new friend with similar circumstances that her life starts to turn around - or so she thinks.
Relationships: Jeon Heejin/Park Chaewon | Go Won, Park Chaewon | Go Won/Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye
Comments: 14
Kudos: 67





	1. Mirrors

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for @yoohyeonsteppy on Twitter. Happy birthday Ami!

**November**

It was the first of November when Chaewon opened her eyes and realized she was dead.

Everything was too much all at once when she lifted her head off the hardwood floor. She was in a place she didn’t recognize, and there wasn't enough light in the room for her to fully take in her surroundings.

Memories from the night before slowly trickled in. It all played out in her head as if it had just happened.

The feeling of adrenaline running through her veins.

The utter panic she felt when a misstep led to a split skull.

The gut-wrenching image of a beast dragging her shredded body away right after her soul had been ripped from its shell.

The screams of terror that still echoed in her ears.

Her mind buzzed with the images. There was a couch behind her, so she opted for leaning against it and took a deep breath. She watched the dust from the air collect and float into her nostrils, and when she waited for a cough to come it never arrived. Her chest felt empty. _Everything_ felt empty.

She was cold, lost, and dead. That much she knew.

Would anyone come to look for her? Surely not -- if she died then the people she was with must’ve died as well.

She distinctly remembered not telling her family where she was going to avoid getting in trouble. No one knew where her body was located. Hell, even _she_ didn’t know where it was.

Park Chaewon spent her first day as a ghost staring at the walls, numb to the tears rolling down her cheeks.

When the sun peeked through a crack in the boards, she wiped her face and shifted to stand for the first time in well over 24 hours. The hours had slipped by like they had been seconds, and she realized slowly that she didn’t even feel tired.

She reached to tenderly touch her head wound but realized there wasn’t even an ache anymore. It was like her body had entirely healed itself in the time she was sitting on the floor. There was no pain or any evidence that she was injured in the slightest.

She just felt… nothing.

Frowning down at herself in the darkness, she reached out and pinched the skin on her arm as hard as she could. There was pain, sure, but nothing outstanding. It felt like a small brush on her arm.

Releasing her skin with a huff, she looked around for a few moments. Aside from an old couch and table, there was nothing of note in the room.

“I might as well start searching for the others,” she said out loud, stretching her limbs before beginning to snoop around the house. The details of each room could come later, she decided - she was focused on finding her friends first.

When she found the front door it was shut so tightly she couldn’t even budge it, so she made a mental note to try it later. _Maybe when I find a few others to help._

Chaewon expected the kitchen to be dusty, but it was incredibly tidy. There wasn’t a single speck of dust anywhere in the room, and when she moved into the dining room it was clean as well.

As she wandered from room to room, searching for a familiar face but coming up empty-handed, she repeatedly went over the events from the night she died.

“It was Halloween and all the usual haunted houses had shut down early... so we decided to raid the abandoned house from out of town…” she rested a hand on a doorknob as she wracked her brain. “We went there, there was nothing of interest, but when we tried to leave the door was locked behind us... and then…”

Her mind went fuzzy. Somewhere between the time she was trying to leave and the time she died her friends had been separated from her.

“Where _are_ you guys?” she mumbled, pushing into the next room.

It was an old study, complete with books lining the walls, a small window at the top of the room with sunlight filtering through, and a small comfy-looking chair to read in. No one was in the room except for her. Frustration built up in her bones and Chaewon grit her teeth, turning tail to go back.

As she turned to move to the room adjacent, however, something glinted in the light that caught her eye. She paused in the doorframe, tilting her head back to get a better look.

There was a small mirror, sitting propped up against the wall.

Curiosity got the best of her, and she halted her previous plans to slowly move to the mirror.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but she looked a lot better than she had thought. Any physical mishaps that would’ve occurred from her death weren’t visible.

_I still look the same age_ , she thought, reaching out to rake her fingers through her blonde hair. She wasn’t wearing any of the makeup she had on the night of her death, but her clothes were still the same - albeit a little see-through. In fact, the more she looked at herself, the more transparent her entire body seemed.

She poked and tugged at her clothes, fiddling with the small ribbon tied into a bow around her neck and adjusting her dress so it wasn't as wrinkled. Even though she was dead, she was relieved she didn’t have to look necessarily _ugly_.

Chaewon took a deep breath and stepped back, giving herself a once over.

“You are dead,” she said, pointing at herself for emphasis. “You are dead and your friends are, too. I think.”

She straightened her spine and raised her chin.

“Maybe this is a good thing because now you don’t have to hand in that history paper you hadn’t even started.”

She stared into the dull eyes reflecting back at her. Maybe talking it out would make her feel less numb.

“Yewon was getting kind of annoying, too, so at least you don’t have to deal with her when you get home. And you won’t have to stress over graduating university and getting a job.”

Her throat started to close up, but she forced herself to keep going.

“Uh… Bbomi was getting old, so you won’t have to worry about him dying before you. Mom and Dad can focus on Yewon and not stress about you being such a mess.”

She took in a shaky breath. It was like she was in a nightmare and she wanted nothing more than to wake up.

“Minkyung wanted to prank that one kid on Monday, and there’s a good chance you would’ve cried if you watched it. At least you’re sparing yourself some of that embarrassment.”

Chaewon wasn’t dumb, though. She knew what happened was real. No nightmare she’d ever experienced before had left her with such a gross and hollow feeling.

“It all feels too soon, though."

Tears started to well up in her eyes.

“Why did it have to be me?”

“Not to interrupt your little pity party you have going on, but there’s nothing you can do about it now. There’s no sense doing that to yourself.” came a voice from behind her, shattering the silence and making Chaewon tense up.

She slowly turned around, coming face to face with a girl that she hadn’t even felt the presence of before.

“You can’t change the past so there’s no sense dwelling over it,” the person continued, tone flat. Chaewon was too shell shocked to respond and instead slowly shuffled to press her back against the mirror.

“...How long have you been standing there?” she whispered out, fear getting the best of her and leaving her voice hoarse.

The girl snorted. “Long enough. I thought you were a lot smarter when I first saw you, but now I’m starting to have my doubts.”

Chaewon wasn’t sure how to respond. “Uh… do I know you? Am I supposed to know you?” she asked, too uncomfortable to even try to be sassy.

The girl stepped back, moving directly under the small streaks of light in the room. They passed through her body in wisps as if she were made of clouds.

“I mean, not really,” the girl responded, putting a hand on her hip. “The living can’t see ghosts, but it’s my duty in this house to try and scare trespassers out before the wendigos catch a whiff of their scent and kill them.” she gave Chaewon a once over with a rather judgemental look on her face. “Obviously I failed with you.”

A lot of information was jam-packed into those few sentences, and it took Chaewon a couple of seconds to repeat the words over in her head. She looked down and squinted to see if the girl’s feet were off the ground, but they were planted flat on the floor.

“So… you’re dead?” she asked cautiously.

"Wasn't that obvious already? Yes, I'm dead, dumbass." the girl snipped. "I have been for the past who-knows how long and I will until the end of time, probably."

Ah.

Chaewon never really liked folklore as a child and she never had reason to start. Ghosts actually existing in her world was something she had never even tried to accept.

Existing as one and standing before another was something she had a hard time wrapping her head around.

“So I’m… also a ghost,” Chaewon whispered.

The girl looked tense and annoyed. “Do I need to spell out everything for you? Yes, you’re a ghost. You and I are the only ghosts that I know of.”

"Ah, but… I came here with friends. I think." Chaewon interjected, a little worried to upset the girl further, "Are they in this house somewhere? I've been trying to look for them."

The girl wasted no time in replying, seeming quite exasperated that the Q&A was continuing. "No. They all got away the night your noggin was knocked in."

Something in Chaewon's brain hadn’t clicked yet, but she wasn’t sure what it was. “So… are all my friends safe?”

“Yep,” the ghost replied, popping the ‘p’. She leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms. “There were five of you, right? I watched the other four run away.” to Chaewon’s dismay, she decided to worsen the situation by finishing off her small speech with “You’re the only one that died.”

“...Oh.” Chaewon couldn’t begin to describe how else she was feeling except for one word - slow. It felt like her brain was stuck in molasses as she tried to process the new information.

“So… what do I do now?” she whispered, feeling her knees start to shake.

“Relax, I guess. Read some of the textbooks around here. Scare away intruders.” the girl shrugged, seeming to not notice the utter horror that stretched across Chaewon’s face. “Sleeping can also pass the time.”

Chaewon brought her fingers up to eye level to see the light flicker in through her skin and out the other side. She watched as her digits trembled even when she tried to force them to be still.

“Oh.” was all she could reply with.

“Anyway. My n-”

“I’m sorry,” Chaewon cut the girl off, barely shifting her eyes from one finger to the other. “Can you leave me alone for now? I think… I think I need more time to come to terms with this.”

From her peripheral vision, the ghost girl didn’t seem very phased. “Alright.” was all she said, and then something else that she didn’t catch.

With that, the girl left just as quickly as she had arrived, and Chaewon was alone again.

Her will to continue searching for her friends was destroyed.

With a shaky sigh of defeat, she moved to settle into the big lounge chair in the corner of the room. It was warm from the sun beaming down on it, and the seat was big enough for her to pull her knees to her chest and curl into a ball.

She lay there and stared at the ceiling, the sound of the house creaking and the wind outside the only sounds to accompany her thoughts.

Was her life supposed to end so early? Did the world want her dead that badly? Sure, she had done a few bad things in the past, but nothing bad enough to be sent to what was essentially purgatory. She was dead, but at the same time, she wasn’t. She was stuck in her world with nothing but the ability to overthink.

Chaewon could leave the house and try to make it back to her home, but what would she do when she got there? Sit on the couch and watch her family mourn over her death? She would rather die time and time again than have to sit through seeing her parents and sister in pain.

Her frustration and sorrow about her situation mixed together, leaving her tired. Even thinking about such things was exhausting.

With that, she tucked her head into her chest and closed her eyes. It didn’t take her long to fall back asleep.

It felt like weeks had passed when she finally opened her eyes. Chaewon had slept without any disturbances, and when she sat up her head felt clearer. It was then that she decided to finally try to pull herself out of her slump and seek out answers.

If she was going to be a ghost for the rest of eternity she might as well try and get context to her death before the only source she had forgotten it all.

Her brows furrowed. Those things that killed her were responsible for this suffering. If it weren’t for them attacking her, she would be alive right now. What did the ghost girl call them? Wyverns? Whatever they were, she wanted more information about them.

It had snowed in the time she was cooped up, something she only noticed upon leaving the study and seeing the floor in the hall lined with frost. Chaewon was grateful for her numbed sense of temperature, as from a minimal amount of experimenting she found she could only feel small bouts of cold air every few hours. It was enough to chill her to the bone every now and then, but she otherwise found herself to be comfortable.

When they had initially met, the ghost girl didn’t seem like she was planning on going anywhere, so Chaewon hoped that she was still in the house. The house was massive, with two vast floors and a smaller staircase that led up to what she could only assume was the attic. The second floor was full of bedrooms and the occasional study, whereas the ground floor had the foyer, dining room, and the like.

It seemed like forever since she had left her napping area, and Chaewon was beginning to lose patience. The ghost must know the house a lot better than her. She should’ve asked for a tour around the house before she shooed the girl away.

“Ghost girl?” she called out, raising her eyebrows at how tiny her voice sounded. “Are you here?”

The house was quiet. Chaewon let out a sigh and made her way back downstairs. At some point, she took off her shoes and socks just to feel the hint of the cold metal staircase on her toes.

It took her a long time, but she finally found her way back to the study she had slept in. A few doors down, she could hear the clang of metal and soft curses. Chaewon felt a wave of relief crash over her and made her way to the room, entering what looked to be a pantry.

The ghost girl was there, slouched on a chair in front of an old-fashioned stove. As soon as Chaewon entered the room, the girl perked up, glancing over her shoulder at her.

“Took you long enough.” the girl quipped. Chaewon froze like a deer in headlights and watched her grab out a kettle from the stove. “If you dawdled any longer I would’ve had to drink all of this myself.”

“I… what?” Chaewon let out, watching with bewilderment as the girl poured the liquid from the kettle into two small cups. From the minimal light, it looked a little dark to be water.

“Well, I remembered I had a pound of leaves left in a crate and wanted to make some.” the girl extended an arm out with one cup in hand. After a beat, she added, “It’s tea.”

Chaewon eyed the liquid in the cup, watching it move around. Did the girl really just handle a scalding hot kettle with her hands? “You made tea… for me?”

“Not really. I was going to make some for myself either way.” the girl drew the cups closer to her own body, swirling the contents. “You just happened to wake up the same day I had these plans.”

She wasn’t sure she trusted her enough to drink something she made. She also wasn’t sure if she was being sarcastic or not. “What kind of tea is it?”

“I don’t know. Tea flavour.” the cup was held back out to her.

Chaewon said nothing and slowly took the mug from the girl, concluding that if the ghost was trying to kill her, it wouldn’t be any worse than dying the first time. The tea was lukewarm on her tongue, even when it was still near-boiling. The drink coated her mouth with a grainy texture, and it hurt a little to swallow.

The girl was watching her with mildly amused eyes. “Yeah, it’s shitty. It’s the only kind I have left, though. I drank all the rest.” she said flatly.

She shook her head. “No, no, it’s okay. Thank you, regardless.” Chaewon saw a chair in the corner of the room and moved to sit in it, tucking her knees up to her chin. “It’s good for my nerves.”

“Yeah.” the girl’s tone remained flat. She swung around so she sat on the chair backwards. “Are you ready to talk now?”

Chaewon took another sip. “I think so. I don’t know how long I was asleep, but I think I… I think I calmed down a little.”

“In this world, time doesn’t really matter. I lost track of the months passing a long time ago.” there was a hint of sadness in the girl’s tone, but it disappeared quickly. “Anyway. What do you want to know? I’m an open book that has all the answers you need, as long as you just ask me about the house and being dead.”

A few moments passed again while Chaewon and the girl took a few more sips. “Well, first of all… I never caught your name.” Upon seeing the mildly confused look on the girl’s face immediately after speaking, she tried to backtrack. “You… do have a name… right?”

The girl made a face. “Duh. It’s Hyejoo. Son Hyejoo.”

Chaewon prided herself in knowing the vast majority of the people back in town, and she couldn’t think of any families with the surname Son.

The girl must’ve been dead for a long time.

“Okay, Hyejoo… nice to meet you. I’m Chaewon.”

“Yeah. I know.” Hyejoo deadpanned. “Your friends were yelling it over and over when you were dying.”

“Oh… yeah. Okay.” She tried to push back the memories of the moment she died, gritting her teeth. “Um… anyway. So, about these wendigos… what exactly are they?”

Hyejoo cleared her throat and straightened up in her chair. “Asking the big questions right out of the gate, I see.” Chaewon didn’t reply and instead waited for her to elaborate.

“They used to be humans. Back when I was alive, there wasn’t much food and most people went to bed hungry,” Hyejoo shuffled her feet along the ground. “I guess a few of them turned to killing and eating other humans for sustenance.”

“Oh, gross.” Chaewon scrunched her nose up. “Are you serious?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” the girl’s eyebrow twitched. “My sister used to tell me wendigos turned into what they are as a punishment for resorting to such a hellish act. As the decades have gone by, they’ve turned more humans into their kind. Soon enough there will probably be a pack large enough to destroy the town.”

The thought of her family and friends being killed by wendigos passed her mind briefly.

“...So why don’t you leave the house? I feel like… if _I_ had all that time being a ghost, I would travel and watch the world develop or at least try to stop the wendigos from reproducing.”

The air was still as Hyejoo took a long sip of her tea. Chaewon watched the liquid bubble at the corners of her lips and then disappear behind her tongue.

“I can’t leave the perimeters of the house. You can’t, either.” She said finally.

“Why not?”

“You just can’t.” Hyejoo suddenly snapped, her grip on her cup tightening. Chaewon must’ve had a scared expression on her face because the girl relaxed immediately after speaking. “Sorry. You can’t leave, though. That’s, like, the only rule we have as ghosts.”

Chaewon frowned. A few questions from that statement alone popped up, but she didn’t want to poke the bear and make the girl upset. “Okay.”

She downed the rest of the cup, letting the tea tickle her throat. “Is there any reason why we’re the only two people in the house?” she asked, feeling a little more confident now that she had some answers. “I mean, I’m sure with the wendigos around that more people would’ve died in the past 200 years, right?”

Hyejoo quirked an eyebrow and finished her drink as well, setting the cup on the ground.

“Wendigos usually don’t kill their catches until they get home,” she started, making Chaewon gulp, “They have nests buried somewhere in this forest that they take the victims while they’re still breathing. Your spirit is released into the area you die in, and you were killed in the house.” she gestured to the room.

As much as she felt her questions were being answered, more started to surface.

“Is that why you’re here, too? In the house and not out in the forest?”

The girl made a face. “Something like that.” she stood up, stretching. “This tea time was nice, but it’s cut into my schedule. I usually have all the studies cleaned by now. So, Chaewon. Are you gonna go back to moping or are you gonna help?”

**February**

Autumn and winter passed faster than Chaewon would like to admit. Before long, she and Hyejoo had settled into a groove. Chaewon decided it was nice to have a routine to look forward to every day. It postponed the inevitable dark thoughts that continuously settled at the back of her head.

They would wake up, clean the ground floor in the morning and then the second floor in the afternoon. Since it usually took Hyejoo the entire day to clean the house by herself, the two were done early and had extra time on their hands before dusk.

Even though there was no food left in the house - there hadn’t been any for many years apparently - the two would have the grainy tea as a form of dinner. Even though they didn’t necessarily _need_ to eat or drink, it was still nice. It was oddly domestic, and Chaewon slowly found she didn’t mind the company of the bitter ghost.

Regardless, it took months for the two of them to start to open up around each other. The more Chaewon talked to Hyejoo, the more she realized the girl was harmless - aside from her empty threats that popped up every now and then, of course.

“If you clean the windows in the sunroom I promise to not strangle you in your sleep tonight,” was what the girl said the first time she gave Chaewon an empty threat. The words shocked her to the core, making her drop the old rag she had been cleaning with.

“What?!”

“Oh, sorry, did your friends not joke around like that?” Hyejoo backpedalled quickly, although there wasn’t much remorse in her voice. “I just don’t feel like stretching my arms above my head that much today.”

The word ‘friend’ echoed around Chaewon’s mind for a few seconds. “No, they did, I just… it took me by surprise.”

Somehow, mid-conversation, she had let out that she died in the year 2020. Hyejoo’s reaction was, in Chaewon’s opinion, very amusing, but it was the exact opposite for Hyejoo. The girl had to take a break in wiping down the covers of textbooks to sit on the floor, twitching her fingers.

“So I’ve been dead for almost… 200 years?” the girl said quietly.

Something settled in the bottom of Chaewon’s stomach. Sympathy, maybe? “Yeah, I guess so.”

“That’s… amazing. No, not amazing, that’s _insane._ ” Hyejoo’s mouth twitched downwards. “I must’ve missed a lot.”

Chaewon scrunched her face as she tried to remember any events that happened in the 1800s. “Did you not have other families move into this house after yours died?”

“No. My mother was the last living person to reside in this place.” Hyejoo flipped through a book on the floor absentmindedly. “My knowledge only extends as far as these textbooks.”

“...So you _don’t_ know what a phone is, then?”

“What the fuck is that?”

Needless to say, Chaewon spent the next few days trying to tell Hyejoo all about her world and what had changed since the latter had died. The inventions, the cultural changes, the events. There were _so_ many things she had missed.

“I’m not that good with history,” she had prefaced once, “But I’m pretty sure you weren’t present for both of the World Wars. _And_ the invention of the computer. Which is wild to me.”

“Both World Wars… there were _two_?”

Similarly, the topic of her hometown eventually came up, something Chaewon had been more or less avoiding.

“This house is famous now?” Hyejoo asked, leaning back in shock. They were drawing on the floor in the attic again, something that had become a sort of scheduled event for them whenever they decided to tell each other more about their lives. “I always wondered why so many kids showed up every year.”

Chaewon sighed softly, scribbling out a large butterfly she kept messing up. “Kind of. It’s not a good type of famous, though. A lot of people my age think it’s haunted, and it’s kind of the cool thing to come and try to survive an attack from wendos.”

“Wendigo,” Hyejoo corrected quickly, going back to colouring in an awfully pretty scribble of a wolf. “It’s kind of terrifying seeing them up close.”

“I know,” Chaewon bites out, “I was killed by one.”

“Not just a random one, though,” Hyejoo points out, looking up to give an awkward grin, “You were killed by the head Wendigo. I’m pretty sure, anyway. I think he’s the only one that will take back dead meat.”

Chaewon didn’t comment on the ‘meat’ part but still shuddered at the thought of being dragged away again. “Great. Can I continue?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

“On Halloween, my friends and I were supposed to be going to a haunted house, but the one we went to in past years was closed down for some reason. So we decided to brave it out and see what this place had to offer.” she let out a shaky breath she didn’t know she was holding in. “Coming here was known as a test of courage, but no one - at least not that I remember - had actually encountered anything aside from regular ghost activity. My friends and I just thought it was some old man that likes to scare teenagers… I don’t think anyone expected to actually be attacked.”

Hyejoo was quiet for a few moments, and Chaewon resumed her drawing to ease the tension.

Her heart was beating quickly at the recollection of the memory. The expression on the beast’s face - or lack thereof - was forever imprinted into her brain. Its unhinged jaw that had clenched onto her legs, its long claws that poked holes into her lungs and tore her body to shreds without hesitation. The excruciating pain and panic were forever imprinted into her brain, shaking her to her very core.

“Kids are dumb these days,” Hyejoo said all of a sudden, jolting Chaewon out of her thoughts, “I haunt this house to scare people away from this place and the forest in general. Wendigos only stay here because of the frequency of kids that come through this place for your so-called ‘test of courage’.” she huffed, setting down her pencil and standing up. “Everyone always comes here to see if they can find a ghost but they always almost get attacked by one of those fuckers instead… dumbasses.”

Chaewon set her pencil down as well. “Why do you want to help them so much? If I were you, I would just leave them be and let them deal with the consequences,” she said, only realizing how bitter she sounded until after the words left her mouth.

Hyejoo hummed. “I used to do that.” her back was turned, so Chaewon couldn’t see her expression, and her dull tone didn’t help her make any guesses.

“My parents… they had a lot of trouble with money when I was alive. It was hard for them to keep this house and raise two kids at the same time.” the girl reached up to trace over the wood patterns on the wall. “They weren’t good people, Chaewon. They killed me and my sister for money.”

A burst of anger blossomed in her chest at the thought. Who would do that to their children? “So the wendigos _didn’t_ kill you.”

“No.” Hyejoo bit out. “I wish they did, though. Instead, my loving mother strangled me in my bed and my doting father made my sister watch, and then they did the same thing to her. So you could say I was a little vengeful when I first became a ghost.”

Images of Hyejoo being genuinely angry popped into her mind. She’d never seen it, but she could only imagine what it would be like.

“The wendigos only started showing up a few years before my death. The day they burst into the house looking for food, I watched and let them take my parents away into the forest. I let them take any trespassers after that, too. It was only until I got bored of it that I decided it was best to start trying to use my abilities as a ghost to scare them away.” There was a small sniffle. “And you’re the first person I’ve ever told that too. Sorry.”

Chaewon wasn’t sure what to say. The raw emotion she felt when she put herself in Hyejoo’s shoes and thought about waiting hundreds of years to talk to anyone was unsettling.

“I guess my town is pretty lucky to have you here to warn them then, right?” she said finally, hoping she was quiet enough the girl wouldn’t hear.

To her dismay, Hyejoo turned from the window to look at Chaewon, the glistening in her eyes betraying the blank expression she usually owned.

Another few moments passed where they locked eyes and said nothing.

Then, of all things, Hyejoo smiled. It was small, Chaewon thought to herself, but just the sight of it made her chest hurt a little.

“I guess you’re right,” Hyejoo said.

**April**

The mood in the house changed one night when they were watching the stars from the window in the attic. Hyejoo had finally stopped complaining when Chaewon wanted to sit beside her and instead had welcomed it with open arms. The two were shoulder to shoulder, talking about whatever astrological knowledge they could remember. For Hyejoo, there was little to know. Chaewon was mildly surprised to find out that she didn’t even know Neptune existed.

The topic of their deaths had come up again. If Chaewon was being honest, it was hard to not bring dying up over and over again.

Hyejoo had straightened her back and looked quite proud of herself, crossing her arms and smiling smugly. “After I swore to save people instead of letting the wendigos take them, I never let anyone else die,” she said, rushing to her feet. “Look - I even have a tally of how many people I’ve saved.”

Chaewon felt her heart drop as she watched the girl reveal a marked-up part of the wall covered by a sheet. Even though the comment was meant to be taken lightly, it still hit a lot harder than it was probably intended.

“So I was the first person you slipped up on?” she said quietly. Hyejoo didn’t seem to notice the change in tone, however, and instead continued to talk.

“Duh. It was kind of funny, though. You totally tripped on the stairs and fell right into the hands of the head wendigo. No wonder you died so quickly.” Hyejoo let out a small fond chuckle and sat back beside Chaewon, crossing her legs. “Anyway, can you tell me more about the moon landing?”

Chaewon didn’t say anything and instead stared out the window. Her curiosity was gnawing at her too much - she needed the answer to what had been on her mind every day since the day she died.

“Hyejoo, is there a reason why I’m the only person you haven’t saved?” she asked into the darkness of the room. “I mean… you say it was a slip-up, but if you’ve been doing this for over two hundred years, it’s a bit hard to believe you would actually fail to save someone at this point in the game.”

Silence.

Chaewon could hear her breathing in the quietness, coming out in small puffs from the sheer anxiety of building up the confidence to finally ask the question.

“I don’t think you will like the answer I have.” Hyejoo finally says. Chaewon shifts away from her then, frowning at the girl who had her head turned away.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Chaewon mutters. Her heart felt like it was going to fail from how quick it was beating.

Hyejoo slowly shifted away from her as well, finally turning to look at her. Her mouth was in a flat line and her eyes kept bouncing everywhere but Chaewon’s face. “I don’t know how to tell you this gently.”

“You don’t need to tell me anything _gently_ , Hyejoo.” Chaewon felt herself getting annoyed. “As long as you didn’t purposefully let me die or something like that, I can take it.”

She expected the girl to retaliate and reject the idea from even crossing her mind, but there was silence.

Oh.

“Hyejoo.” Chaewon moved to her feet then, her anger bubbling to the surface. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Chaewon, please. If you put yourself in my shoes you would understand.” Hyejoo stood up slowly, putting a hand up like Chaewon was an animal of some sort. “I hadn’t had anyone to talk to for over 200 years, I was so alone I thought I was going to die again-”

“You let me die because you were lonely.” Chaewon snapped, clenching her fists. Tears started to well in her eyes. “I can’t believe someone could be that fucking _selfish_.”

“It was the only thing I had left to do!” Hyejoo spat. “It was either that or let myself slowly fade out of existence.”

“You should’ve done that instead.” Chaewon grit out. “Maybe everyone else leaving you was a sign, and you’re destined to be alone.”

Before she knew it, Chaewon’s feet were carrying her out of the attic and away from the girl. Her breathing was shallow, and she didn’t even flinch when she tripped and fell down the remaining few stairs to the ground floor.

She made her way to the study she used for napping, but then thought otherwise. If Hyejoo was so determined to keep someone else in the house for company, wouldn’t staying mean she was obeying the one rule she had to follow as a ghost?

The large wooden door in the lobby caught her eye.

“I can’t leave?” she mumbled, sniffling as a few tears made their way down her face. “We’ll see about that.”

The front door was still locked tightly shut, but Chaewon’s sheer will to leave the place was stronger. The cracking of the wood sounded over the shouts from behind her, and with a big tug the door was open. The night sky greeted her face, and she bolted out into the forest.

For a few moments, there was peace. The soft chirping of the nightlife soothed her nerves and chilled the tears that were streaking down her cheeks. The moon above her shone brightly, outlining the trees around her and welcoming her back into the world.

Then the pain started.

It tingled in her toes first, like a firecracker was lit under her bones. It was bad enough she shifted from foot to foot to lessen it, and when she took another step forward it worsened. It spread up her body and into her neck.

“Chaewon!” Hyejoo stayed in the door frame. “Get back in here!”

Chaewon gasped from the pain that was nearly unbearable at this point. It froze her to the ground and left her breathless.

“No!” she managed to spit out. “This is what… should’ve happened… long ago!”

She collapsed to her knees. The pain was throughout her entire body now, taking over her brain. Sure there was pain now, she thought, but at least she would get to be free.

Without warning, a tugging sensation was against her waist, and cries of pain sounded through her ears as her vision blurred. Then, she was hitting the hardwood floor of the house again, and the door was being slammed shut.

She lay there on the ground, sobbing and crying out in pain. From her messed up vision, she could see a dark blob lay beside her, making similar noises.

The feeling slowly returned in her legs, tingling in her stomach and buzzing in her fingers. It was _so hard_ to breathe.

Her ears were ringing, but she could still make out a few noises.

“That’s… why… you don’t go outside.”

Chaewon didn’t say anything and rubbed her cheek against the floor, struggling to stand up.

What seemed like hours passed while she lay on the ground. Her body had stopped hurting, but it had left her with such an aching sensation that she wished she was just left outside to be fully swallowed up.

She moved to her feet slowly and shakily. From beside her, Hyejoo had sat up and was rubbing her neck.

“Chaewon, at least listen to what I have to say.” the girl said quietly. “My sister… she-”

Chaewon didn’t want an explanation. Her body felt like it was moving on its own, and it only took moments until her hand wound back and collided with Hyejoo’s translucent cheek.

“You don’t get to have an explanation,” she hissed. She’d never felt so angry before - even when she was alive, she always considered herself to be a very patient person. Now, with her life already gone and her sanity on the line, the situation was different. “You tore me away from my family and friends. You destroyed my life.”

Hyejoo’s lip curled back as she stood up. “If I’m so shitty, consider this.” she stepped forward menacingly, and for a split second, Chaewon saw pure _anger_ in her eyes. “How many times have your wonderful friends come back to look for you, huh? You’ve been here, what, half a year? I haven’t seen them _once_.”

“You fucking idiot,” Chaewon hissed, her anger getting the best of her. She stepped closer to her, so close she could feel the ghost of Hyejoo’s breath on her face. “They _saw_ me die. I would _hope_ they don’t come looking for me, cause all they would find is _nothing_!” she screamed.

She hadn’t noticed it before, but she and Hyejoo were crying. Chaewon knew it was bad because her nose was running, tears dripping down her chin and slipping into her open mouth as she openly sobbed. Hyejoo didn’t look any better, clutching her chest and hiccuping from the intensity of her tears.

“At least you have friends that would even consider looking for you,” Hyejoo snapped. “My parents had kept my sister and I so secluded from the rest of the world that no one even _realized_ we had died. I had to…” she hiccuped again, and Chaewon felt her face fall at the change in the girl’s tone. “I had to watch my sister die twice. I watched her disappear, Chaewon. I saw her try to leave the house when we were ghosts.”

She was silent as Hyejoo continued to talk. The tears were overflowing, cascading down both of their cheeks.

“Chaewon, I’m so, so sorry I did this to you. I was so desperate for company after Haseul’s death, and… by the time you and your friends came around, I had accepted the fact that someone was bound to get hurt eventually because of my selfishness.” she reached up and tried to wipe away her tears, and Chaewon mirrored her actions. “I’m sorry it had to be you.”

Chaewon felt her breathing tremble. “I’m sorry, too.”

With that, she turned on her heel and walked away. Her favourite study room welcomed her with open arms, the light filtering through the window mocking her as it reminded her of the first time she sat within the walls.

She sat on the chair that she had learned to love and tucked her knees under her chin. The tears were still rolling down her cheeks, staining the cushion.

She needed more time to think. Luckily for her, time was all she had now.

Chaewon counted the days as they passed. She made a tally mark against one of the many bookshelves in the study, and when the sun rose for the seventh time she had made up her mind.

She looked at herself in the mirror. Nothing had changed. Her hair was still blonde and her eyes were still the dull gray her mom used to rave over.

The only different thing was that she was dead. That was a given, though.

With a deep sigh, she opened the door and stepped out into the light of the lobby. Hyejoo was there, sitting at the top of the metal staircase that held so many bad memories for Chaewon.

“Hyejoo.” she said, alerting the girl who seemed to have been zoned out, staring at the ceiling. When she said nothing, Chaewon took that as the cue to continue.

“Hyejoo, I… I’m sorry.” she wrung her hands, finally stopping her walk at the bottom of the stairs. “I thought about it, and… if I was in your place, I would’ve wanted to do the same.”

The girl was quiet for a few moments. And then, quietly, she asked, “Really?”

“...Yeah.” Chaewon heaved out a sigh. “That doesn’t mean I forgive you, though. I don’t think I… I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you.”

Hyejoo let out a noise. “That’s understandable.” she slowly made her way down the stairs, coming to stand a few feet away from Chaewon. “I’ve been thinking a lot, too.”

Chaewon quirked an eyebrow. She felt her walls being built back up, and out of paranoia, she took a step back. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” There was a pause, and then, “I didn’t clean the house at all in the time you were gone, and I realized that maybe we need to do some _actual_ renovations instead of just dusting everything off.”

For some reason, that brought out a snort of laughter. “I agree.”

**July**

It took Chaewon a bit of convincing, but she was finally able to accept the fact that yes, she _can_ stick her head out the window and not be in excruciating pain.

“It’s only if your body is fully outside that you start to disappear, I think,” Hyejoo said one afternoon after opening the window in the attic. “That’s what I’ve found, at least.”

The two of them found that renovating the entire house was difficult especially when they had limited supplies to use. They couldn’t, after all, leave the house to get any sort of new materials, so they had to use whatever they found.

It was because of the lack of materials, however, that motivated Hyejoo to continue the restoration of her home. Chaewon found it oddly fascinating that the windows could, in fact, open after all the years of them being closed.

It was when Chaewon was cleaning up the attic and clearing out any of the unnecessary boxes that she found one of particular interest to her. It was a crate, an extremely old-fashioned one, and a label “For Ghost #2” was written sloppily on top of it.

“How long were you planning this, Hyejoo?” she whispered, to no one in particular. Using whatever strength she had left in her, she got on her knees and pried open the crate.

Multiple satin bags lined the bottom of the crate, nestled against each other. Frowning, Chaewon dug into a bag and pulled out what looked to be wood chips. There were red circles sprinkled in as well, and when she put some in her mouth, a familiar taste coating her tongue.

It was the tea they had been drinking since they met.

Chaewon slowly realized that Hyejoo had probably been saving the tea until she had someone to drink it with. Something unsettling rested in her stomach, but she closed the bag and crate back up and pushed it to the corner of the room anyway.

**October**

Summer passed and the leaves began to fall. Chaewon decided she liked sticking her face out into the breeze as the days got colder. The odd leaf that fell from a tree and blew into the house were like gifts to her. It reminded her of the festivities October brought.

Including Halloween.

Before she knew it, it had been a full year since she had died. A full year since she met Hyejoo.  
Hyejoo woke her up early on the morning of October 31, 2021. The sun had barely started to rise.

“I need you to be prepared for this,” was what the girl prefaced her speech with, “Because the first few years I witnessed it, I had no warning and I was scarred.”

“I don’t think there’s an easy way to be exposed to creatures trying to attack children,” Chaewon said with a quirk of her eyebrows as she sat up and stretched.

“Yeah, but… I just want you to remember to keep your cool. We can’t have a third person die.”

Chaewon cleared her throat and nodded. “Yeah. I understand.”

When the sun set, the two of them sat at the top of the stairs and waited.

“So, what exactly do you do on Halloween night? To scare away the kids, I mean.”

“Oh, the usual,” Hyejoo’s tone was flat. “Light some candles and hold them in the air, draw signs on the wall that direct them to the back door or say things like ‘leave now’. Normal things like that.”

Chaewon let out a snort. “Ah, yes. The usual things one does to their home.”

“Hey, if I’m the one cleaning it up, it doesn’t matter what I do,” Hyejoo replied back snappily.

She opened her mouth to reply back with something she knew wouldn’t be nice, but luckily a noise from down the stairs alerted her. It was too dark to see anything, but from the voices, Chaewon could only assume they had visitors.

“I’ve spent so many years keeping those windows intact, only for some fucker to mess it up,” she grumbled. “Let’s do this thing, Chaewon.”

Chaewon silently hoped that their company was just wendigos. After all, they would have nothing to eat and would simply leave - at least that’s what Hyejoo said. She was still having a hard time believing anything the girl would tell her after the truth came out.

“Why can’t they just come through the front door?” Chaewon wondered as they moved to the stairs. “I mean, we unlocked it, right?”

“Some kids like to be cool and try to show off to their friends.” Hyejoo let out a sigh. “I don’t know _why_ it would be fun to get cuts all over your legs, but whatever.”

In the lobby, Chaewon found them. They were a few girls, three at the most. They looked to be around the same age as Hyejoo and herself.

Or, well, their age when they had died.

“This _is_ the place, right?” one of them was asking.

“What? Of course, it is.” another replied. Hyejoo turned to the candles to light them, but Chaewon held up a finger to stop her. “Chaewon probably died right here.”

“They’re talking about you,” Hyejoo said as they watched the girls disappear into the next room. “Do you know them?”

“No, not that I remember,” she whispered. Hyejoo set a candle down on the ground and joined her side. “Either way, we gotta get them out of here.”

“Yeah.” as if on cue, there was a shadow in front of the shattered window, and Chaewon’s heart picked up a few paces at the sight of the horribly familiar set of jagged teeth.

“Keep your cool, Chaewon!” Hyejoo yelled.

Chaewon bolted into the hall the girls were in, grabbing her equipment as she went. She grabbed an unlit candle and jumped in front of the girls, waving it in their face.

“Oh, there she is.” one of the girls said cooly. “Hi, ghostie.”

“What?” Hyejoo said from behind them, poking her head out from the lobby. “Are they seriously trying to say hi?”

Chaewon grit her teeth. They weren’t understanding the severity of the situation. She picked up a few more candles and threw them at the girls, frowning when one of them giggled and jumped out of the way.

The girls slowly moved into the next room. Chaewon let out a groan in frustration and looked at Hyejoo for help, who only shrugged.

There was a fourth girl, one she hadn't noticed before. She came out from her favourite study room and glanced over in Chaewon's direction before following her friends. Was she in the house this whole time?

There was a crash in the lobby. Hyejoo made a surprised noise, and Chaewon yelled out in frustration.

“Stop! Go away!” Chaewon planted her feet firmly in front of the fourth girl and put her hands on her hips. She _knew_ the girl wouldn’t hear, but she felt like it was the only option she had left. “You’ll be killed if you’re here any longer.”

“Oh, I know. It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

There was a beat, and then reality hit Chaewon like a brick. Did she just… _reply_ to her?

“Wait… you can hear me?”

The one girl was making _eye contact_ with Chaewon. She nodded and then bowed. “I can see you as well. My name is Jeon Heejin. I’m a necromancer.” she straightened up.

“You’re Park Chaewon, right? My friends and I have heard lots about you. I’ve been studying the art of letting spirits pass on for years now, and when I caught wind of your situation I thought it was the perfect time to practice.” Heejin smiled at her, and Chaewon instantly felt at ease.

“I’d like to help you move on from this state, but I need a bit of your time first.”


	2. Windows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything ends. 
> 
> Trigger warning: body gore, guilt-tripping/emotionally and physically abusive behaviour. 
> 
> Reminder that this is purely fictional and the way that I write the girls is in no way a reflection of how I perceive their personalities in real life.

_“I’d like to help you move on from this state, but I need a bit of your time first.”_

Chaewon was shocked, to say the least. If she was being honest with herself, she had pretty much accepted the fact that she was going to be a ghost for the rest of eternity - until a few moments prior, at least.

“That’s nice and all, but you guys need to get out of here right now!” Hyejoo yelled from the lobby. All other plans seemed to be thrown out the window now that the girl could hear them.

Down the hall, a rotten hand shot out and latched itself onto the wall. With it came a large wendigo, its head tilted back and teeth exposed to let out a nasty growl. The skin around its mouth was pulled taut and was ripped in some places, exposing the bone underneath mixed with dark red blood. Saliva dripped from its teeth, pooling onto the floor and making Chaewon gag.

She pressed herself against the wall so Heejin could move easily towards the back door. The other girls were nowhere to be seen, and Chaewon silently cursed at herself for losing track of them. She couldn’t afford to let _anyone_ die, and she’d managed to lose track of over half of the first batch of kids. 

“We can always talk later, for now, you need to go!” Chaewon said, gesturing wildly with her hands. “The door at the end of the hall leads to the other side of the forest, get out while you can!”

Heejin either chose to not listen or didn’t have any sense of urgency in her body, because she did not move an inch. 

“It’s fine, Chaewon.” The girl said, giving a small smile. The wendigo came barrelling towards her, stumbling on its legs as if it were a newborn calf. Chaewon let out a small scream at the close proximity and moved to Heejin’s back, pushing on it as hard as she could. She fell through the girl, tumbling to the floor. 

“How is this fine?!” She screamed, scrambling to her feet as quickly as she could. “If you’re just gonna give up and die like that I will not hesitate to make the afterlife a living hell fo-”  
  


Chaewon’s breath left her body, escaping in a shudder. 

The wendigo had stopped moving. 

The beast was perched over Heejin, anchoring its claws deep into the hallway walls as it loomed midair above the girl. It was more terrifying up close, and if it weren’t for the heaving breaths it was taking Chaewon would wholeheartedly believe it was frozen. It’s drool dripped onto Heejin’s shoulder, who made a face.

“It isn’t going to hurt me. It can’t.” She said, moving to her jacket pocket to pull something out. It was an amulet of some sort, glittering a ruby red in the minimal light. “This protects me from any monster with ill intent. My friends also have some.” 

Chaewon’s gaze shot between Heejin and the charm. “I… wow.” She said. “So it can’t touch you at all?”

“Nope.” Heejin looked quite proud of herself. “See?” To prove her point, she raised the hand holding the amulet straight in the air towards the wendigo. It reeled back as if her hand was on fire, snarling and dropping to the floor with a crash. 

“I’ll be right back.” The girl said, looking back to Chaewon with a wink before practically herding the monster back to the lobby. Chaewon watched with her jaw dropped as the wendigo escaped out the window it had shattered, running back into the forest.

Heejin popped back into the house a few moments later looking like she hadn’t just done something extremely groundbreaking. “Well, now that that’s over with!” She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted, “Girls! It’s safe now!”

Chaewon slowly shuffled back into the lobby. There was shattered glass everywhere that crunched under Heejin’s combat boots. Ripped pieces of wendigo skin hung from the broken window, and although the monster was gone, Chaewon didn’t feel safe just yet. 

“I’ll talk to you, but not now. More will arrive,” she said to the living girl, “I’ve been told it’s common five or six of them show up on Halloween.”

“That’s okay,” Heejin grinned, “Is there a place in the house the wendigos wouldn’t be able to access? It’s not that they’d be a problem, but…” She leaned in close, her voice dropping to a whisper, “Well, my friends are a bit paranoid.”

As if on cue, the three other girls appeared from the hall. They held a few flashlights, and Chaewon could finally get a good look at them under the light. They looked quite young - well, at least one of them did - and they were covered head to toe in charms and beaded necklaces. 

“The attic is probably our best bet,” Chaewon said, looking to Hyejoo for confirmation but found she had already left. She frowned. _Maybe she’s just shy._

Heejin nodded. “Lead the way, then.” 

She felt very comforted by Heejin’s presence. She was being very respectful, keeping a safe distance from Chaewon and speaking in a low, calm tone. 

“How has life as a ghost been?” She asked as Chaewon moved up the stairs, gesturing to her friends with a hand to follow.

Chaewon shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Pretty quiet.”

“I’d say that’s a good thing,” One of the other girls piped up, “I feel like having to deal with wendigos would be exhausting. Are they here often when it’s not Halloween?”

“That was my first time seeing one since I became a ghost, so no.” The hallway leading to the attic was dark and cold. She could see the girls shiver behind her. “It’s just up here.” 

Chaewon pulled down the stairs for the attic and stepped to the side, letting the girls go up first. Heejin took the rear, giving a warm smile before she headed up. The girls were settling in on the floor when Chaewon poked her head up.

She started to walk up the steps, but a hand latching onto her arm stopped her. The sensation jarred her so much she nearly let out a yelp. Hyejoo was behind her, looking less than pleased. 

“What are you doing?” She hissed, grip tightening. Maybe it was because she was already hurting the first time Hyejoo touched her arm, but Chaewon hadn’t noticed before how _painful_ it was to be grabbed by the ghost.

“I’m letting them stay in a room they feel safe in,” Chaewon responded as she jerked her arm away. “Do I need to ask your permission for everything?”

Hyejoo looked at her with pure hostility, and it took everything in Chaewon to not flinch. “No, but remember that this is still a hotspot for wendigos, and whether you like it or not, they _will_ be back. We need to get them out of here, not invite them in for tea, Chaewon.”

Hyejoo’s lips were raw from chewing them and her hair was mussed near the roots. From behind Chaewon, the light noises of the girls laughing reached her ears. The drastic contrast between the person she had known for the past year versus the people she had met ten minutes ago hurt her head. 

She wasn’t sure where her loyalty lay - sure, she would jump at any chance to get out of the house and not be stuck in purgatory with the girl that put her there, but the amount of trust she had in strangers was dwindling as it was. If Heejin was telling the truth and knew how to do freaky ghost magic, she could end up sending Chaewon to somewhere worse than purgatory. 

She met Hyejoo’s eyes. 

“I’ll never know if I don’t try.” She said with finality, trying to make her voice even. “If they die or if I get sent to Hell, that’s on me. Not you.”

“Chaewon, you’re making a mistake.”

She turned her nose up to the older ghost and headed up the stairs into the attic, slamming the door behind her. Whether or not Heejin and her friends heard the conversation was unknown, but as soon as she sat down with the rest of them, she immediately felt a certain type of warmth in her still heart that hadn’t been present the past year. 

The three other girls were Hyunjin, Yerim, and Yeojin, she learned. They all played a role in keeping each other safe, although Yerim was the only one out of them that was genuinely excited about being in the house. 

“What do you mean?” Chaewon asked when Yerim gushed about her odd interest.

“Heejin always talked to me about this stuff,” The girl said excitedly, leaning forward on her knees. “Her passion for it totally rubbed off on me.”

Heejin looked a little embarrassed. “Yeojin is my younger sister. I had to babysit her tonight, so she had no choice but to come along.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Hyunjin, well…” 

“As if I would let you do something this dangerous without help.” The girl in question retorted. 

“Hey, I’m here! I help!” Yerim threw her hands in the air. 

Hyunjin didn’t waste a second in replying. “You don’t count, Yerim.” 

While Yerim’s cheeks began to flush, the others laughed. “You’re a better babysitter than anything,” Yeojin said. 

“Yeojin! I thought we were friends!” Yerim cried. Heejin rubbed the purple-haired girl’s back, although the gesture didn’t seem entirely genuine through her laughter.

“We are when you buy me Menchie’s. You haven’t in a long time.” Yeojin crossed her arms and began to pout. 

Heejin reached over and swatted at her sister. “Don’t be rude, Yeojin. Yerim doesn’t have to spend money on you all the time.”

“She does if she wants to keep my friendship.”

Chaewon couldn’t help the chuckle that rose as she watched them easily bicker even minutes after witnessing a horrible creature. The noise, however, seemed to jar the girls, for they immediately stopped talking and looked to her. 

“Oh. Sorry,” Chaewon said, her cheeks feeling a bit hot, “I, uh… it’s just…” She let out a huff of breath, “You guys remind me of my old friends from high school.”

Heejin seemed to jump at the opportunity as soon as it was given, forgetting the previous topic. “We do? What were your friends’ names?”

Even though she was sure only Heejin could see her (either that or the other girls simply could not look Chaewon in the eyes), she didn’t like the feeling of all the attention being on her. It didn’t help that she _hated_ thinking about all the people she left behind. “Um, well…”

Images of her friends flashed through her head. “My best friend’s name is- was Jiwoo,” She started, opting to stare at her hands in case she started crying. “She was dating an older girl - Sooyoung - so we were friends with all of her friends. Jiwoo was the mood maker of the group. Sooyoung was the one who always planned stuff for us.” She swallowed a lump that had settled in the back of her throat. Her eyes stung.

The more she thought about her old friends, the more upset she got. She realized she hadn’t even spoken their names since… 

“Vivi and Minkyung weren’t usually there to hang out with us, but when they did they made sure we didn’t die.” She flinched at her own words. “For… for the most part, anyway. They were like my second set of parents.” 

“Hold on,” Yerim said. Her hand was stretched out in Chaewon’s direction. “Jiwoo as in Kim Jiwoo?”

Chaewon blinked. A tear rolled down her cheek, but she didn’t bother wiping it away. “Uh… yeah.”

“That’s crazy,” She said. “I’m friends with her sister, Jungeun.” 

“You’re friends with _everyone_ , Yerim.” Hyunjin rolled her eyes. 

Yerim made a noise. “We go to the same school! I’d say we’re good pals.”

Chaewon snapped out of her sad daze. From what she could remember, Jiwoo’s sister was only a few years younger than her, and they would sometimes chat with her on their lunch breaks. “You go to LHS?”

“We all do,” Heejin intervened. “Except Yeojin, of course.” 

The girl in question puffed out her chest. “I’m going there next year!” 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Heejin pushed Yeojin’s forehead and laughed as the girl flung her head back from the impact. “That’s one of the reasons why we came to see you, actually.” She added. 

Chaewon was confused. “Because you all go to the same school?” Heejin waved a hand dismissively. 

“No, no. We saw your memorial in the paper and recognized you from LHS. Hyunjin, Yerim, and I are only two years younger than you.” She was back to looking nervous. “We always thought you were really cool, so your death was quite a shock. I don’t know if you recognize us from school, though.”

Chaewon felt a bit guilty. She had always been so involved with schoolwork and organizing events that she never saw the point in remembering people’s names and actually _befriending_ anyone. Jiwoo had been that exception, of course. 

“I don’t.” She admitted, “I’m surprised anyone actually found me cool.”

“You were the president of the anime club, right?” Yerim asked. Heejin’s eyes seemed to light up. 

Chaewon inwardly groaned as the witch spoke for her. “Yeah! Your posters you put up were always so cute and your pep rallies were so fun!” 

“She used to do the Naruto run when we were walking to the stadium,” Hyunjin said flatly, earning a gasp of betrayal from Heejin. 

Chaewon chuckled, trying to plead the red away from her cheeks. “Is that why you’re here? You want to learn more about anime?” She said, cracking a small grin.

Heejin’s smile faltered for a split second.

“Actually…” The girl reached into the satchel against her hip, bringing out a small photo. “My family is full of witches. For centuries, it’s been our job to work with ghosts and help them move on to the afterlife. It only took me this long to drop by the house because I had to do extra… research.” 

Chaewon took the picture from Heejin. It was crumpled around the edges and had many creases, but she could still make out the faces of the family in the photo. There was an old lady and two girls close in age sat on each knee. Shelves filled with uniquely shaped bottles covered the wall behind them. 

“That’s Yeojin and I with our grandma,” Heejin said proudly. “The ability to wield magic skips a generation, and Yeojin is still a bit young to start learning. My mom looked after her while my grandma taught me the basics. ” She reached a hand out, and Chaewon gently set the photo back in her hand. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Yerim, Hyunjin, and Yeojin stared at the photo with focused eyes, and it took her a second to remember they couldn’t see her. 

“So your grandma did this stuff too, then? Talking to dead people?” She asked as she stood up. She moved to one of the many boxes in the room and shuffled through it. 

“Not really. She was a necromancer like me, so she knew the practice of it, but she only ever used her abilities for fame. Used to go on TV shows and talk to people’s dead loved ones and shit like that.” 

“You said ‘shit’.” Yeojin parroted almost immediately.

“Shut _up_ , Yeojin,” Heejin grumbled. Chaewon finally found what she was looking for and pulled it out - a large tablecloth. It wasn’t the best, but it would do the trick. 

Sitting back down with the group, she wrapped the dusty cloth around her shoulders and above her head, forming a makeshift cloak. She didn’t say anything but noticed the three non-witches were able to look more directly at Chaewon. A smile found its way to her lips. 

“Anyways. I wanted to do more for families who lost loved ones instead of just talking to their ghosts and pretending there’s no way to help them,” Heejin continued. “Which is why I’ve been working on talking with everyone in the forest and helping them move on. You’re up next.”

Chaewon frowned. “Hyejoo said we’re the only ones in the forest that have died.”

“Only ones in the _house_ , you mean.” Hyunjin piped up for the first time in a while. “Not the only ones in the forest. There are hundreds - well, there _was_. Before Heejin got to work in setting them free.”

“Oh. Right.” Chaewon wasn’t entirely sure if she had misheard her ghost companion, but she had been _positive_ she had said “forest”. Although, how would Hyejoo know if she couldn’t leave the house perimeters?

There was a noise downstairs. Yerim jumped, as did Chaewon. 

“It’s taken me a long time to get to you because of how abrupt the people in the forest have died.” Heejin ran a hand through her hair. “The more disastrous the death is, the more disturbed the ghost is and the harder it is for them to pass on. Wendigos are absolutely terrible, and dying by them is one of the worst ways to go.” 

Chaewon made an “o” with her mouth. “Yeah. I’m told I was killed by the _head_ wendigo.”

She didn’t miss the way Yerim and Hyunjin exchanged a glance.

“Wendigos are kinda cute,” Yeojin said, grinning even as her sister hit her on the head, “They’re like human spiders except without hair.”

Chaewon didn’t like that description. “Human spiders?”

"Totally," he younger girl didn't seem to notice everyone's discomfort at the comparison, for she was grinning ear to ear. "I have a spider at home that looks just like 'em. Weird stripes and everything."

"They have stripes?" Chaewon asked Heejin for confirmation, who shook her head.

"It's the blood that streaks their body, Yeo, it's not actual fur." 

Yeojin frowned. "Phooey." 

From far away downstairs, there was another noise, followed by the distinct sound of Hyejoo yelling. Chaewon felt tense. Heejin cleared her throat and stood up.

“Well! I think we’ve loaded you with enough information for tonight, so let’s call it quits. Thank you for being so open with us.”

Chaewon stood as well, letting the tablecloth fall to the floor. “No, thank you for what you’re doing. I… I had just accepted the fact that I was stuck here.” 

Heejin smiled. “Worry no longer. Once we’re done with you, you’ll be on your way to heaven - or whatever it is that you believe in, of course.”

The other girls stood as well. 

“One thing I’m gonna leave with you to think about,” Heejin added, reaching back into her bag and withdrawing another piece of paper, this time looking similar to a newspaper, “Is this. Ghosts only remain in this realm because they have something holding them back. This could mean a person they love, a mission they feel they can’t finish now that they’re that’s dead… anything, really. Think about what it is that’s holding you here, and we’ll be back in a few days to talk again.”

Chaewon gingerly took the paper. It was her memorial from the newspaper, with a small entry below her picture about her life and how she mysteriously died.

“Thank you,” She said, breaking her gaze from the sheet to the girls as they headed out of the attic. “I can’t thank you enough, really.” 

“We haven’t even done anything yet, silly!” Yerim said, grinning to the air. “Wait to thank us when the rituals _really_ start.”

Chaewon smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

  
  


**January**

Ever since Heejin and her friends had shown up (Yerim insisted that she refer to their group as "Furries Anonymous", but Chaewon straight up refused to do so), being a ghost became a hell of a lot more enjoyable. Having a slightly-deranged roommate from the 19th century provided as much company as a houseplant, so it was a breath of fresh air to speak to someone else.

There were a few perks to having the girls as friends. Sure, Chaewon felt a little upset when she heard of all the fun events she had missed out on, but they provided enough entertainment as it was that she couldn't even be bothered to care about everything else.

In the past months that they had been visiting, Hyejoo showed herself less and less. Chaewon sometimes tried to find her but came to the quick realization that the girl was purposefully avoiding her. At least once a week Chaewon would be wandering around the house and would come across the other right as she was leaving the room through another door. 

The living girls only visited once every few weeks at most. That paired with Hyejoo avoiding her left Chaewon the most vulnerable and lonely that she’d been since she first died. 

Luckily for her, Heejin had picked up on the silent treatment Chaewon was getting. Sometimes, when nights were extra cold and the cries of the wendigos were distant, the girl would visit all by herself, carrying two mugs of hot chocolate and other treats she insisted on Chaewon having. They would sit up in the attic and Heejin would let loose all the gossip that was sitting in her brain - mostly about people Chaewon didn’t know, but she listened intently anyway.

Those nights were her favourite. 

She finally felt loved, even if it was all just a facade Heejin put up so she could practice her magic. She appreciated the company, and she could tell Heejin liked being away from the confines of her regular life. 

Even if Chaewon slightly frustrated Heejin a bit.

“Come _on_ , Chae,” She said one night, setting her large travel mug of coffee down so hard a few drops of the liquid splashed onto the floor. “You’ve _got_ to have something keeping you here. Are you sure you haven’t forgotten anything? Something that left you angry and wanting revenge or somethin’?”

“I’m positive about it. I didn’t have any set goals in life, and I didn’t really have any enemies… I think, anyway.” She kicked at some of the drops of coffee and watched the smudges slowly dry into the floorboards. “Besides… wouldn’t I _still_ be angry if I really had a reason to be? The only emotion I feel is numb.”

Heejin picked her mug back up and took a big swig. “True. That’s normally how poltergeists come to be. They die angry and don’t get the chance to have a more peaceful existence as a ghost.” She shuddered. “There’s quite a few out there in the forest.”

Chaewon frowned. The topic of the ghosts and creatures out in the forest rarely came up, but when it did Chaewon found she was left with more questions than answers. “They’re angry at the wendigos that killed them?” 

There was a beat of silence. “In a way.” She let out a loud sigh, stood, and locked the door to the attic. When she sat back down, she said, “Chaewon, how much do you know about the other ghost living here?”

Chaewon’s breath hitched. “Hyejoo?”

“Don’t,” Heejin said almost immediately, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “Saying the names of a spirit when talking about them negatively has nasty side effects. Even if you’re also a spirit.”

“...Negatively?”

Heejin shook her head as if there was a bug on her, reached into her bag, and pulled out a bottle of what looked to be whiskey. Chaewon watched as she unscrewed the cap to her mug and poured in a shockingly large amount of alcohol before taking a large gulp straight from the bottle. 

“I wasn’t sure how much you knew before, so I didn’t say much,” Heejin said, setting the bottle down beside Chaewon as she shifted to sit beside her on the floor, “But I have a few questions before I tell you anything.”

Chaewon’s still heart felt like it was in her throat. “You’re starting to scare me.”

Heejin looked a little apologetic. “I’m sorry. If I push too far, just let me know. I can always ask again later.” She stretched her legs out in front of her, resting her hands on her knees. “I just want you to be honest.”

As much as she loved having Heejin around, she was always very conscious about what she was saying and doing in her presence. Hyejoo’s stunt from the year prior always seemed to ring in her head the moment she considered genuinely trusting any of the living girls. “Go for it.”

Heejin’s breathing shook a little as she stared straight ahead, fingers fumbling with a charm bracelet she wore on her wrist. If Chaewon could remember correctly, it was one that rendered her immune to curses. Or something like that. 

“Has she said anything about the other ghosts that used to live here?” 

Chaewon felt stunned. She asked Heejin to repeat the question.

_Other ghosts._ _Was Hyejoo lying? Or is Heejin the one making things up?_

“How could she when she’s been the only one here?” Chaewon asked once she finally got her head to stop racing a mile a minute. 

“My grandma didn’t refuse to work with ghosts for the fun of it, Chaewon,” Heejin said in a very low tone. “She refused to work with ghosts because of _this house_.”

Silence. Heejin took that as a sign and continued. “She left a diary behind with descriptions of the different spirits in this house. There were so many, Chaewon. But by the time she had gotten around to figuring out the situation and started to troubleshoot, she was already a grandma. That’s why she quit that job and left it for me to pick back up when I was ready.”

Chaewon took a deep breath. There were other spirits? Were they still in the house? Had she been relaxing and wandering her new home that had been occupied by hundreds of other beings this entire time? 

Why was Hyejoo the only one she could see if that was the case?

“What’s the ‘situation’, then?” 

Heejin reached for the bottle of whiskey and took another swig, her mug of coffee seemingly empty already. “I don’t know if I have enough time to tell you tonight, but there’s been some kind of… _barrier_ that’s preventing ghosts from moving on. Most of the ghosts in the forest were originally at peace with their death, but they couldn’t do anything about it. They _became_ angry. Because of something keeping them there and forcing them into aggression.” Heejin had turned to face Chaewon and was looking directly into her eyes. 

“I’m afraid that’s what going to happen to y-”

She cut herself off, her eyes darting to the door. A creaking sound got Chaewon’s attention. It sounded like it was right outside of the attic door, and when Heejin got up and opened it, Hyejoo was standing there, a fist raised to knock. 

“You guys woke me up,” she said, rubbing at an eye with her other hand. “Can you keep it down?”

Heejin looked over her shoulder to give Chaewon a frustrated look. “Yeah, sorry. I was just about to leave, anyway.” 

The living girl hurriedly picked her stuff up and packed it in her bag. She moved to the attic door to move past Hyejoo - or through her, as she would sometimes do to Chaewon without realizing it. Hyejoo jerked her body backwards and jumped down the few stairs, wrinkling her nose at Heejin as she passed. 

“I’ll see you later, Chae. Bye, Hyejoo.” 

Heejin left without another word, walking briskly down the stairs and out of sight. When the sound of her sneakers faded, Hyejoo hopped up into the attic, sitting in the corner of the room without speaking.

“What’s your problem?” Chaewon asked after a few moments. Hyejoo grunted and crossed her arms. “Are you always like this when other people are in the house?” 

“No.” Hyejoo snapped, “Because this is the first time _other people_ have even been here more than once. They can’t keep coming here, Chaewon. Especially not that girl.” 

Chaewon leaned forward. She hated arguing with Hyejoo - nothing ever seemed to get resolved when she did so. Regardless, she felt herself snapping back, “Heejin? What about her?”

“She’s going to mess it up.”

“Mess _what_ up, exactly?” 

Hyejoo was quiet for a moment. “This. Us. She’s going to do something bad to us, Chaewon. I can feel it. I don’t feel safe when she’s here.”

Chaewon felt a little sympathetic for a moment. She had, after all, let the girls come into Hyejoo’s home and disrupt the peace. Then she remembered what Heejin had said. 

“Am I really the first ghost that’s lived here? Aside from yourself?” She asked. 

It was like a switch was flipped. Hyejoo’s annoyed mood worsened almost immediately. “Of course you are. Why would you think otherwise?” 

She opened her mouth to reply but closed it immediately. 

This Hyejoo was not the same as the Hyejoo she had originally met. The one that had brewed her tea when she first came out of hiding, the one that had laughed with her and discussed their cultural differences, the one that had sat with her under the stars (and told her she let her die on purpose). 

This Hyejoo was hostile and angry. She had been since Heejin and the others had shown up, but Chaewon had just been trying to convince herself it was something _she_ did. 

“No reason. I was just curious.” 

  
  


**February**

After that night in January, the tables had seemingly turned. Hyejoo was the one that was constantly on the lookout for Chaewon, and Chaewon was insistent on hiding from Hyejoo. She found that the doors to her favourite study room had busted locks, so she opted to push the bookshelves in front of them when she wanted peace and quiet. The window that provided a sliver of light was also right beside the path Heejin used when coming to visit, so she was able to hear when she needed to come out of the room. 

On Valentine’s Day, Hyunjin and Yerim came by themselves. Chaewon decided to let them into her study room, promptly pushing the bookshelves back when the door was closed. Hyunjin demanded she helped. 

“Heejin and Yeojin are coming soon,” Yerim said as she laid out a vivid purple blanket on the ground, pulling a few items out of her backpack. “They’re bringing a special guest, if that’s alright.” 

“Special guest?” Normally, Chaewon loved surprises, but this situation seemed to be a bit different. “Do I know them?”

“I sure as hell hope you do,” Hyunjin said, rolling her eyes. 

A few hours went by, and in that time the three of them talked and played games. Even though Hyunjin and Yerim couldn’t see Chaewon, Yerim insisted on complimenting Chaewon’s outfit and telling her she looked pretty every half an hour. 

“You don’t even know what I look like.” 

“Yes, I do!” Yerim pulled her phone out of her pocket and fumbled with it for a few seconds, eventually thrusting the screen to the room. Chaewon maneuvered to look at the screen and was mildly surprised to see a picture of herself and Jiwoo in college. “Look! You’re gorgeous!”

“You are quite pretty,” Hyunjin said in a small voice. Chaewon blushed from the attention, and for once was thankful that they couldn’t see her. 

When Heejin texted Hyunjin to inform her they were on their way, Yerim made Chaewon go back out to the lobby with them. 

“What’s going on?” Hyejoo asked, descending the metal staircase. Chaewon shrugged, sticking close to Hyunjin and Yerim. Hyejoo sat down at the top of the stairs and waited. 

Heejin opened the front door and popped her head in. “Oh, good, you’re here already!” She looked over her shoulder and began to gesture wildly, whispering in a hushed tone. 

Yeojin came pushing through the door, holding onto someone who was covering their eyes. It appeared to be a young girl, maybe around the same age as Yeojin. She had auburn hair that settled around her shoulders in soft waves and wore a bright yellow sweater and overalls. 

The lack of covering up for a chilly day in February is what came to Chaewon’s mind first, and it was when she looked the girl up and down once more did she realize who it was. 

A hand wrapped itself around her still heart and squeezed, leaving her breathless. 

“Please don’t tell me this is a prank.” The girl said, dropping her arms to her sides. Her eyes began to dart around the lobby, taking in the scene. “I have the police on speed dial.” 

“It’s not,” Yeojin reassured the girl, patting her back. “Heejin, are you sure she’s right here?”  
  


“Yeah.” Heejin looked a little apologetic, but stepped forward and gestured for Chaewon to come closer. “Do you recognize her, Chae?”

“Of course I do.” Tears welled up in Chaewon’s eyes. “Yewon.”

“She can’t hear you, unfortunately,” Heejin said as Chaewon moved forward, gingerly reaching a hand out to brush the girl’s cheek. “We tried to teach her beforehand but we didn’t have enough time. ‘Cause, well, she’s flying out to Canada for the rest of the year.”

“Canada?” Chaewon felt herself automatically replying as her throat began to close up. Her sister, her precious baby sister, was standing in front of her. Confused and a little uncomfortable, sure, but it was still her. Still _Yewon._

“She said ‘Canada?’,” Yerim said, giggling. Yewon looked a bit shocked, glancing back and forth from Yerim to Heejin. 

“Uh… yeah. I’m going to Toronto for an exchange program.” Yewon shifted on her feet. “I’m trying to get into the art school there.”

“Art school.” Chaewon stepped forward even more, putting a hand on Yewon’s shoulder. The younger girl shuddered. “I’m so proud of you.” 

Yerim relayed the message to Yewon, who gave a small smile.

“We know we missed your birthday, so we wanted to wait until the next holiday to pull this off. Family always helps me feel better when I’m lonely, and even if we’re here for you now, I know it’s not the same.” Heejin said to Chaewon. “We tried to conta-”

“I’m sorry, who the fuck is this?” came a shout from behind them. Hyejoo was still at the top of the stairs. Her elevation compared to the rest of them cast a shadow on her face, hiding her expression. 

“This is my younger sister.” Chaewon managed to say loud enough that the other ghost could hear her. “She’s all grown up.” She looked back at Yewon, giving a bitter smile. “I missed you so much.”

“I would like to say this is all possible because of me,” Yeojin said matter-of-factly, raising a hand in the air. Chaewon noticed how the other girls seemed to either not hear Hyejoo or simply ignored her, which brought her a bit of satisfaction through her sadness. “I saw Yewon in the library one day and took it upon myself to befriend her.”

“Is that why you asked to be my friend? Because you knew where Chaewon was?” Yewon let out an awkward chuckle. Chaewon wanted to see her sister _genuinely_ laugh.

“No! I want to be your friend because you’re cool!” Yeojin flushed. “But also because of Chaewon.”

Chaewon felt the tears in her eyes begin to roll down her cheeks. She let out a small sob and slowly wrapped her arms around Yewon’s shoulders, resting her cheek against her head. Yewon froze upon the contact. 

“Heejin. Is something on me?” Yewon whispered, her voice hesitant. “I feel… cold.”

“She’s hugging you,” Heejin said softly. Yewon breathed in shakily and nodded, reaching up to try and hold her sister. Chaewon felt her arms pass through her body and stepped back from the odd sensation, letting her body shake from the sobs. 

“I can’t even hug her properly,” Chaewon mumbled, wrapping her arms around herself. 

“I know, Chae.” Heejin said, although she didn’t move towards her for comfort. 

“Yewon, I missed you so much.” Chaewon hiccuped through her. “I thought I could get over being away from you but I miss the days we would paint together and make bracelets and I miss arguing with you over who gets the bigger comforter and… and…” 

  
Hyunjin had pulled a yellow blanket out of her backpack, handing it to Heejin. Heejin wrapped the blanket around Chaewon’s shoulders, although the momentary source of comfort was lost to her.

Fleetingly, Chaewon wished Heejin hadn’t invited Yewon over. She could tell it was going to hurt even more when it was time for Yewon to go back home because she didn’t know when - or if - she would ever see her again. Did Yewon even want to visit her? Chaewon had forced herself to move on and nearly forget about her family, so what if her sister did the same thing? 

Through the tears that blurred her vision and dulled the world around her, she could hear Yewon ask, “Is she okay?”

“She’s just happy to see you, Yewon,” Yeojin said. 

“That’s sweet. I’m thrilled, honestly.” 

“No one asked for your opinion, Hyejoo.” Heejin snapped immediately, her angry tone nearly shocking Chaewon out of her tearful state. 

Hyejoo had descended the staircase and was making her way over to the group. Chaewon took a step back from Yewon and watched, rubbing at her eyes and wiping away the tears as quickly as she could. 

“That’s disappointing. I have so much to say about this wonderful reunion.” Her lips were curled in a snarl. 

“Save it,” Hyunjin said flatly. “This isn’t about you and it never will be.”

“What’s going on?” Yewon whispered to Yeojin, who quietly whispered in her ear. 

“Why can’t it be about me?” Hyejoo drawled, walking towards Heejin with an expression that could only be described as _angry._ “Chaewon and I are the ones that live here, not you. I deserve to know what’s going on in my own house.”

“The only thing you’re _deserving_ _of_ is a kick in the throat.” Heejin snarled. “You’ve been avoiding us up until now, what changed your mind?”

“Don’t test me, Jeon.” Hyejoo grit out. Chaewon fleetingly wondered how she knew Heejin’s last name. “You best get out of here before I make you regret ever coming here in the first place.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Heejin stood her ground, glaring daggers at the ghost. Chaewon reached an arm out to protect Hyunjin and Yerim.

It all happened fast - _too_ fast. 

Hyejoo let out a nasty growl and lunged forward, wrapping her hands around Heejin’s neck and squeezing hard. The living girl let out a yelp as she reached for her charms, grabbing one and trying to smash it on Hyejoo’s head. Her attempt was futile, and Hyejoo didn’t seem to be bothered by it in the slightest. 

The ghost picked up Heejin like she was three pounds, lifting her by the neck into the air. Chaewon watched in horror as Heejin’s face turned purple, and she began to look to all the others for help. 

Before Chaewon could say anything, however, Hyejoo threw Heejin. She went flying across the lobby, head hitting the corner of a wooden cabinet as she landed. Heejin’s body lay limp in the corner, and when she lifted her head to grapple at her amulet, the one that warded off spirits with ill intent, Hyejoo stomped over and crushed her hand with her foot. 

Everyone stood in silence. Chaewon felt like she was frozen. 

Hyejoo turned to face the group. Her face looked burned, soot covering the one side of her face, and deep scars gouging into her cheek. She nearly looked worse for wear compared to Heejin, if it weren’t for the pool of blood that was slowly starting to leak from the girl’s head. 

“Get _out._ ” Hyejoo hissed. 

It was like someone pushed play on a recording, and everyone sprung into action. 

Chaewon looked quickly between the two groups of people. Yewon was sobbing, holding onto Yeojin for dear life as they pushed themselves out the door. Hyunjin ran over to Heejin’s limp body, threw her over her shoulder like a sack of flour, and bolted. Yerim followed behind quickly, giving a parting glance to Chaewon as she did so. 

Chaewon stared out the door with her jaw dropped for what seemed like hours. Heejin’s glazed-over expression echoed in her vision the same way a song would get stuck in her head. 

Hyejoo just hurt a human. A living, breathing human.

“You…”

“Good riddance,” Hyejoo grumbled from behind her. Her voice got closer and closer, and soon she could hear her soft breathing right by her ear. 

“Maybe now they’ll leave us alone.” 

Chaewon felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Her entire body felt like it was screaming to _run_ , but where could she go? She couldn’t go outside - they had already figured that tidbit of information out the hard way. 

“Why are you so set on it being the two of us?” She asked, her voice low and steady. Her emotions were everywhere. She had seen her sister, one of her favourite people in the entire world, but she was ripped from her grasp once again. Heejin, someone she now considered to be a good friend, was critically injured, maybe even dead. 

No, Hyejoo wouldn’t kill Heejin. She _wouldn’t._

Would she?

“I just think they’re annoying. They try so hard to weasel every little thing out of you so they can help you move on, but it’s all pointless. You can never move on. You’re stuck here.”

“How do you know that?” Chaewon snapped, glaring at the open door, refusing to look behind her and stare at those dead gray eyes. 

Two hands rested on her shoulders. The sensation was painful, burning into her skin and forcing the tears in her eyes down her face, running over the dried streaks. 

“I determine whether you leave or not, love.”

**March**

Chaewon spent the past month and a half stuck in her study room. 

She didn’t come out - not even when someone who looked a lot like Yerim knocked on the window and waved. 

She couldn’t even consider moving the bookshelves. 

Not when Hyejoo was sitting on the other side of the door, waiting. 

  
  


**August**

She was sure she had read every book in the study. She had silently hoped that there would be books hinting at anything regarding the house or Hyejoo, but she came up empty-handed. 

Yerim had left her backpack in the room, so she took her time rifling through its contents. Her purple blanket and pamphlets on wendigos and a few other mythical creatures were the only contents, alongside a few snacks that she ate miserably. 

She ignored the pamphlets on fairies and selkies and put the wendigo edition on the floor after giving it a glance over. There was no sense putting her energy into something that the kids had thousands of hours of research on anyway. Carefully, she tucked the backpack in the corner of the room, nestling the blanket around it in a sort of fake shrine. 

She began to sort the books on the shelves by colour. She started by throwing them all onto the floor - which was a bad idea, as most of them were so old they nearly disintegrated upon impact with the ground. She made it a game to throw a large book down and try to make a bigger dust cloud than the previous book.

It was when she was putting away any muted orange books that she heard it. A soft tap on a hard surface. She froze, her usually-relaxed senses jumping to high alert, and turned to the source of the sound.

At the window was a familiar face. Not a menacing face, like Chaewon had immediately expected. It was one that brought relief and a few tears to her eyes. 

“Heejin.” she breathed, letting the books in her arms drop straight to the floor as she crossed the room. The girl stood there, in a floral print dress and matching sunglasses. She looked healthy, her cheeks blushed a bright pink instead of the deathly white she had seen back in February. 

Hyunjin was also there, standing a bit off to the side with her back turned. She seemed to be on the lookout, her arms crossed over her chest in a slightly menacing way. 

The witch grinned and waved erratically, which Chaewon returned just as enthusiastically. Heejin reached into her backpack she had slung on one shoulder and produced a notebook and pen. 

_I don’t want to talk in case I alert anything, so I’m going to communicate like this. Is that ok?_ Is what she had written along the top line of the paper. Chaewon nodded slowly, and then pointed to her temple with a tilt of her head. Heejin seemed to understand what she meant and went back to writing furiously. 

_I’m all healed. Wiccan magic does wonders when your head is split open._ Chaewon inhaled sharply at the memory and shook her head.

_Sorry it took me so long to come to say hi. Turns out I needed to do a bit more research, and, well… recovery took longer than expected._ Heejin looked a little uncomfortable. Hyunjin moved closer and mumbled something to her in her ear, to which she shook her head. 

_I had something important to tell you that time I came by late at night. Do you remember? I asked you about Hyejoo’s past._

Chaewon gave a small nod.

_I’ll keep this brief to save my hand from tiring out, but here’s the gist of it: the notebook my grandma gave me kept a journal of the spirits in this house. There are records of at least thirty ghosts aside from Hyejoo and yourself being present in this house, but their residency never overlapped. They never stayed in the house at the same time, and they all remained for around the same time - twenty-ish years._

Heejin took a break from writing, and Chaewon felt her breathing stop from the suspense. 

_There’s always been one ghost that was occupying the space at the same time as the others, though. One constant. A ghost that hasn’t left since they died back in 1843._

_If you couldn’t tell already, I’m talking about Hyejoo._

“So much for keeping it brief,” Chaewon muttered sarcastically, chuckling under her breath when Heejin cupped a hand to her ear and raised an eyebrow. She shook her head in reply. 

_What I’m trying to say is that Hyejoo has always been here, but the other ghosts always come and go. My theory for the longest time has been that Hyejoo is either eating the spirits of the ghosts to gain power or simply got bored of them and killed them._

Chaewon cursed as fifty questions popped up in her head, but with no way of asking them. Her mind raced as she held up a finger and began to frantically search the room for something to use as ink. She had a plethora of paper, sure, but writing utensils was a whole other story. 

She dug through Yerim’s backpack, searching for a pencil case. Instead, she found a singular ballpoint pen, crammed in the corner of the material. It was normal for the most part if it weren’t for the small bat charm perched along where the eraser would be. She grabbed one of the larger books and scrambled to write down the most prominent question as quickly as she could. Heejin stood patiently waiting, a grim smile on her face.

_GHOSTS CAN DIE? WE’RE ALREADY FUCKING DEAD._

Heejin let out a silent laugh, although her smile didn’t reach her eyes. 

_It takes a certain type of ghost to kill another ghost. One that’s been angry at the spirit world for a long time. That’s what confused me. I thought this type of power would’ve forced her to become a poltergeist, but I was wrong. Hyejoo is a different kind of powerful._

Chaewon huffed, feeling her cold breath hit her cheeks and ruffle the strands of hair around her face. Just her luck she had to get stuck with a powerful ghost. Why couldn’t she have died in an open meadow and spent her afterlife with the ghosts of raccoons and deer? She would much rather have that. 

Heejin was still scribbling, ripping out her used pages of paper and stuffing them in her backpack. Chaewon fleetingly noticed that she and Hyunjin had matching backpacks - Hyunjin’s was an orange cat, and Heejin’s was a pink bunny. 

_That’s why it took me so long to recover. This power is strong, Chaewon. Strong enough to do something I’ve never even heard of before. Like, have the power to force ghosts into a worse afterlife or torture them into doing so of their own accord._

Chaewon shuddered. She thought back to the last thing she heard Hyejoo say. 

_SHE TOLD ME SHE CONTROLS WHETHER I LEAVE OR NOT._

Heejin seemed to read Chaewon’s sentence over and over again. Her mouth was set in a flat line as she said something that looked like a curse and wrote out a few more words. 

She held the notebook back up to the window. For the first time, Chaewon looked her into her eyes and read her emotions clearly - anger, determination, and fear all mixed into one big cesspool. 

_I have a plan. There’s something in the museum downtown I think is Hyejoo’s. I may be wrong, but it’s worth a shot. Just hang on tight and we’ll be back soon._

**October**

Heejin’s definition of ‘soon’ was not the same as Chaewon’s. 

The tally marks on the wall Chaewon had been making told her it was at least five weeks since she originally saw Heejin after the attack. Every now and then the girl would pop by again, write out a few words explaining her plan, and then disappear for a while. 

The notes got shorter and shorter - wendigos had started to loiter around the property, raking a claw against the window every now and then to remind Chaewon of their presence. Even though Heejin had the charms to prevent them from attacking her, she couldn’t blame the girl for making her visits brief regardless. 

Chaewon considered asking Heejin whether or not she was attending university - after all, they had been visiting for quite some time now, didn’t they at least have homework? Every time she visited, however, she forgot simply from the sheer joy of being able to see her friend again. 

She had been writing down everything Heejin had told her in the pamphlet about wendigos. The plan seemed well thought out, but she couldn’t help but doubt the girl anyway. 

  * _Artifact in museum belonged to either Hyejoo or Haseul. It’s a doll that was found in this house after the owners died._



  * _Owners of the house were killed mysteriously. I’m thinking Hyejoo killed them._



  * _Fire can let spirits escape from their confined spaces if enchanted. I need to learn that spell._



  * _You know Annabelle? The demon that was trapped in the doll? I think we can do that with ghosts as well._



  * _The wendigos are worsening. I think Hyejoo may be able to control them as well. Whenever I come near the house they start going nuts._



  * _Once the source of the barricade is destroyed you can leave the house. The source is Hyejoo, if that wasn’t obvious. I think she is, anyway._



  * _One more week, Chaewon. Prepare yourself._



If Hyejoo was as strong as she said, could they even pull it off? What if Chaewon really _was_ bound to the house and she couldn’t leave in the end? A lot in the plan was banking off of assumptions they were making about Hyejoo.

It was around the third week of October that Heejin brought the entire group with her for the first time since February - Hyunjin’s hair was dyed from its usual black to a bright red, whereas Yerim’s had faded to pastel pink. Yeojin looked the same, although her face had matured a little. They were all armed with weapons of varying types. If Chaewon didn’t know any better, she would think they were heading to war instead of visiting a haunted house. 

_If this goes South, it might end up as bloody as a war,_ she thought bitterly. 

The girls all waved to Chaewon and headed in the direction of the front door. Yerim stayed behind, propped up against the window. 

Chaewon was shivering from nerves. Her brain couldn’t help but wander to negative scenarios. Heejin failing meant everyone else would probably die, and then what would happen? Would the girls also be stuck as ghosts in the house? 

Yerim looked tense. Even with her back to the window, Chaewon could tell she wasn’t in the mood for her usual jokes and laughs. Chaewon tapped on the window and she rocketed into the air, whipping around for a brief moment with a shocked look on her face. Once she had calmed down, she gave a little wave and turned away again. 

What seemed like hours passed. Yerim glanced at her phone every now and then, and Chaewon managed to get a glimpse of her lock screen - it was 4 in the afternoon. How long had they been waiting? 

As a sort of method to calm her nerves, Chaewon began to look around the room - what she had begun to consider _her_ room. The comfy chair in the corner of the room was littered with books, a similar state to the rest of the room. The mirror that sat propped against the wall caught the sun’s rays and beckoned for her to come to stare at herself. 

Nothing had changed in regard to her appearance, although she expected as such. Once more, she tightened the bow that sat around her neck and let out a sigh, making eye contact with herself. 

After her first day as a ghost, she hadn’t really taken the time to look in the mirror. The only attention the object got were slight glances as she passed from room to room or the odd stare as she threw a bunch of books down in front of it. 

The last time she _really_ looked, she was in a state of panic, an absolute mess after realizing she was dead. Now, she was about to find out if she could actually leave her current state of being. As for her emotions and ability to stay calm in high-stress situations… nothing had really changed. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Yerim nearly jumped out of her skin, although Chaewon hadn’t done anything this time. Yeojin came around the corner, her metal baseball bat slung on her shoulder casually. 

The younger girl waved to the window. Chaewon was expecting a thumbs up or a smile from Yeojin, but all she got was a sigh as the girls started to talk in low voices together. 

Chaewon hurriedly reached for a book, scribbling out a message. She placed it on the window and tapped lightly, pulling the girls’ attention from their conversation. 

_IS IT TIME?_

Yerim shook her head and held a finger to her lips. Yeojin threw her bat on the forest floor and rummaged through her bag, pulling out a notebook similar to the one Heejin had. 

_she needs to interact with the doll before heejin can put her in it. we just need to wait more._

As Chaewon was reading Yeojin’s horrible handwriting, she heard it. Laughter echoed from somewhere in the house, making the hairs on her arms stand up. Yeojin and Yerim seemed to hear it as well, for they immediately grabbed ahold of their weapons.

She could hear Hyejoo’s voice. It was sweet but laced with venom, sinking deep into her skin as it made its way closer to the study. She was calling Chaewon’s name in the same way a child would when looking for their lost cat. 

“What have you been planning, Chaewon?” She called out, and there was a _thump_ as she tried to move the door. The bookshelf didn’t budge, but some of the contents tumbled to the floor. “I _know_ you haven’t been plotting against me with that witch. You would never do that to me, right, Chaewon?” There was another noise at the door. “You and I have bonded so much over the past year. You would never _betray_ me like that, right?”

On the other side of the window, Yeojin and Yerim were struggling to juggle the weapons and the notebook. Yeojin was writing something down again, making large scribbles as she messed up words.

_ok so dont freak out but i dont think it worked as well as we wanted it to. yerim said she left a knife in her backpack’s front pocket. we aren’t sure if it will help you any, but get it just in case._

Chaewon raised an eyebrow and quickly moved to the backpack, tossing the blanket aside. Sure enough, there was a dagger in the front pocket, and she inwardly cursed at herself for not _thoroughly_ searching the backpack earlier. Who knew Yerim was the type to carry weapons wherever she went?

“As if _I’m_ the one that’s been betrayed,” She said loudly, her voice shaking horribly as she stood up to face the blocked door. “You _let_ me _die_. I should’ve never trusted you from the start.”

The bookshelf started to shake a little. The noises got louder like Hyejoo was throwing herself against the door. 

“I had good reasons to do so, Chaewon.” Hyejoo’s voice was louder, rising to a yell. “I would’ve protected you and kept you safe from any harm had you just obeyed me!” 

“What were your reasons?! You were _lonely?_ ” Chaewon kept trying to get her emotions in check, but she couldn’t help but yell. She was too frustrated, too _angry_ at this person who tried to take over and control her life. 

“If Heejin hadn’t come around and I had gotten into a fight with you regardless, what were you planning on doing? Throwing me outside and watching me disintegrate like your sister did?”

A snort. Then, “Something like that.”

The door broke into splinters, toppling the bookshelf to the ground. Through the dust, Chaewon could see Hyejoo and a figure standing at her side - a lanky, inhuman creature with a hanging jaw and arms soaked to the elbows with blood. Her heart dropped as she locked eyes with the wendigo and she _knew_ which one it was _._

The head wendigo. 

“Away,” Hyejoo said once the debris was cleared, waving with her arm. Immediately the wendigo took off, tearing down the hall and out of Chaewon’s field of vision. Slowly she stepped in the room and over the bookshelf, coming within an arm's reach of Chaewon. 

There was a moment where she stared at Hyejoo and said nothing. She could see the anger that boiled so vivid in her eyes that it left her calm. Any inkling of emotions similar to hers dissolved in Chaewon’s gut and was quickly replaced with fear upon realizing her shield was destroyed. 

“I'm sick of you.” Hyejoo hissed.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she advanced. Chaewon reacted quickly, lifting her free hand to push at Hyejoo’s shoulder and ducked to avoid a clawed hand that reached for her. 

Trying to think fast and avoid being scratched let alone _touched_ by Hyejoo, she moved to the opposite side of the room, stepping over some books. Her foot accidentally nudged a few of them, bumping into the mirror. It fell to the floor and shattered. 

In the time it had taken for her to look back upwards, Hyejoo had moved once more, letting out a growl as she came closer. Chaewon dodged out of the way, twisting her body so she was right behind the girl. Not knowing what else to do, she lifted her hand and stabbed Hyejoo in the back, twisting it as it made an impact.

Hyejoo froze for a second, her limbs going still as she faced the wall. Then, a laugh, and she turned around, pulling the blade out of its home and dropping it to the floor.

“I’m dead, you dumb bitch.” She hissed, and Chaewon froze in fear as the girl’s hands latched themselves around her neck. Pain shot through her head and her knees buckled. Hyejoo released her hands and Chaewon fell to the floor, writhing in agony. 

She could see her crouching over her while she was on the ground. Somewhere in the distance, something shattered. Chaewon tried to think of the presence of any other mirrors in the house but came up empty-handed. 

“I think I’m going to rip out your eyes,” Hyejoo said slowly, tapping her fingers against her jawline thoughtfully. “Just because I feel like it, and I like seeing you in pain.”

“Stop,” Chaewon gasped, hands reaching above her head in a desperate attempt to get away. Instead, they landed on something soft, and she barely registered that she was holding Yerim’s blanket. 

As Hyejoo dropped to one knee, Chaewon wrapped the fabric around both of her hands and thrust her arms forward, blindly aiming for the girl’s neck. She landed the shot and the blanket draped itself over her neck gently.

“Aw,” Hyejoo said, “Are you going to cover m-”

Chaewon threw an arm up and wrapped the blanket around Hyejoo’s neck once more and pulled as hard as she could, knocking the wind out of the girl. She lifted a leg up and kicked her in the side, and when Hyejoo coughed and dropped her other knee to the floor Chaewon pushed herself out from underneath her. Hands still gripping the blanket, Chaewon shoved her elbow into Hyejoo’s rib cage, sending her body to the floor. 

Hyejoo gasped for breath as Chaewon struggled to her knees and rested a foot on the girl’s chest, keeping a decent distance between them. Hyejoo’s hands grasped at her ankles and sent jolts of blistering agony through her legs, but she ground her teeth and bared it. 

As she was feeling her arms about to give out, nausea overtook her senses, and her eyes snapped to an object going through her body. It was a bat. She hadn’t even realized it, but she had been walking back to where the window was. 

Yeojin had been swinging her bat back and forth in the air, trying to hit something. It would’ve collided with Chaewon’s head had she been a solid object, but it passed into her still heart and through her ribcage. 

Her sight went blurry and she crumbled to her knees, shuddering as soon as her hands hit the floor. Hyejoo seemed to take the opportunity and approached her slowly, untangling the blanket from her neck and throwing it to the ground.

“What did you say earlier? _‘Throw you outside and watch you disintegrate like your sister did’_?” Hyejoo’s voice dropped to a rough whisper, her breath still coming out in pants. “Good idea.”

A hand latched itself around a bundle of Chaewon’s hair and pulled _hard._ The pain shot through her skull and into her neck, and for a moment it felt like she was paralyzed. Her vision went dark, and when she was able to blink some of the stars out of her sight she realized she was being _dragged._

In the few seconds it took for Chaewon to collect her bearings, Hyejoo had pulled her out into the hall and was making her way to the lobby. The light from outside filtered in through the door and hurt her eyes, and she numbly reached up to Hyejoo’s hand to try and pry her off. 

Hyejoo’s voice was bitter. “You know, I thought you were going to be better than the past ghosts I’ve had here. They all gradually succumbed to my charm, but you were different. You have a mind of your own. It’s sickening.” Chaewon dazedly hooked a foot along the doorframe leading into the lobby, halting her from moving further. Hyejoo stopped her pulling for a moment to grab her legs and yank on them, opting to drag her by those instead. 

“Ever since you stepped foot in this place with your dumb friends and their disgusting laughs, I knew you were going to be mine. It’s always the quiet ones that win my heart. Alas…”

It was when the front door became scarily close that Chaewon found her voice and began to scream. She twisted and turned in Hyejoo’s grip, hollering as loud as her vocal cords could allow her. She managed to flip onto her stomach and began to grapple at any nearby furniture or grooves in the floor, tears freely streaming down her cheeks.

“Hyejoo, stop!” She heard Heejin’s voice. “I don’t want to make this harder than it already is!”

Chaewon could see the light of day approaching faster and faster. The girls were standing in the doorway, watching, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t stop Hyejoo. 

“Help!” She screamed, writhing her body around as much as she could to try and stall the inevitable. 

“Now.” She could hear Heejin say, and then her voice dropped so low Chaewon couldn’t hear it anymore. 

Just like she expected, Hyejoo stepped through the girls and out the door, dragging her with her. 

“I won’t get hurt if I’m with you,” Hyejoo said over and over, like a sort of mantra, and when Chaewon’s head hit the dirt her head echoed with the manic cackle the girl let out. “As long as I have someone to sap the life out of, I will be fine.” 

Chaewon finally clicked together some of the last few pieces in the puzzle, and she let her body go limp. So Hyejoo _was_ strong because she was eating the other ghosts - in some shape or form, at least. 

There was no way Heejin would be able to pull this off. 

She looked up at the trees that covered the sky, at the squirrel that sat watching the whole ordeal go down, at Hyejoo’s fringe as it shook with the effort of her carrying a body after having just been strangled. With an internal sigh, she decided to simply give up. Maybe this way of life was meant to be. 

But then Hyejoo’s head wasn’t there anymore. It was like it just vanished. 

Chaewon lay there on the ground for a few moments, waiting for her to return. She could hear her own breathing coming out in ragged gasps and occasional hiccups, and she hadn’t even noticed before that she was crying. After what seemed like an eternity, she sat up.

Heejin and her friends were surrounding a box, with the former still mumbling a chant of some sort. On top of the box sat a small wolf stuffed animal, looking quite worse for wear. The box also looked rather old, with locks placed along the sides. 

She blinked hard so her vision would clear. She reached up to wipe away at her cheeks but simply smudged dirt on them, so she gave up. 

“We got her, Chae,” Yeojin said in a whisper, “We trapped her.”

Chaewon let out a shaky breath. “You… what?”

“We put her in the doll,” Yerim said a bit slower, pointing to the box, “But then we’ll also put her in the box. Heejin’s just making sure she won’t leave either of them.”

The wolf looked like it was about to burst at the seams, and when a small ripping noise sounded through the afternoon air, Heejin stopped her speech and put the doll in the box before continuing. 

Chaewon stared in wonder as the other girls finally departed from the box and went to their own bags. When Heejin was done she immediately made her way to Chaewon, who was still sitting on the ground. 

“I’m really sorry we had to use you as bait like that,” Heejin said, holding out a hand for her to take, “When Hyejoo saw the doll and didn’t touch it or anything I thought we were doomed. Who knew we had to get her physically out of the house for the ritual to work, huh?”

Chaewon let out a loud exhale she didn’t know she was holding when Heejin pulled her to her feet. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Hyunjin approached slowly. “You aren’t injured, are you Chaewon?” She held up a small first aid kit. “I mean, I don’t know if ghosts can really get hurt or not, but…” She rubbed the back of her neck, suddenly looking a bit embarrassed. “Well…”

“I’m a bit hurt internally if I’m being honest,” Chaewon said with a small smile, even though she knew the girl wouldn’t be able to see it, “At least that’s what it feels like.”

Heejin frowned and turned away briefly, rummaging through her backpack and pulling out a lighter. 

“Hyunjin spent the past hour spreading gasoline around the house and pathways in the forest,” She said when she stood up, flinging her backpack over her shoulder once more. Hyunjin gave a small and satisfied grin as she continued, “All we have to do is strike a match and we’re on our way.” 

Chaewon opened her mouth to argue, but Heejin saw and cut her off. “The magic… or whatever it was… is broken. That box is one of the most powerful ways to stop an evil spirit and the wounds it inflicts.” As if to prove her point, she squatted and knocked on the top. “If you don’t believe me, at least try stepping out of the boundaries, and if it’s painful we can go back inside.”

She looked between all of the girls. Heejin was looking at her expectantly, while the others were packing up the few items that had been strewn across the forest floor. When she looked down, she could see the small dirt pathway that circled the house. Her feet were planted firmly inside. 

Deciding to just rip the bandage off and get it over with, she took a confident step outside the path and put her hands on her hips, letting out a loud exhale. She waited a few moments for the pain to arrive. 

“Well?” Hyunjin said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You good, Chaewon?”

“Give me a second,” Chaewon mumbled. She walked a few steps further, flexing her fingers and picking up the pace. When she made it to the nearest tree a few feet away from the girls, she felt the realization begin to sink in. 

Her hand brushed against the bark of the tree. “I did it,” She breathed, and then, “I mean, we did it. I’m not in pain.”

Yerim and Yeojin whooped, only to quickly be shushed by Hyunjin. Heejin couldn’t have looked happier, fist-pumping the air. 

Chaewon let out a little laugh and shuffled her feet in the grass, feeling the long strands tickle her legs. When she looked up, however, she could barely make out the silhouette of a wendigo deep in the forest. Before she could alert the girls, it was gone.

Her attention was brought back quickly as a hand rested on her shoulder. 

“Come on,” Heejin said with a small smile, extending a hand for Chaewon to take. “Let’s go home.” 

The walk to town was fast-paced and quiet. As the forest lit up around them, the screams of dying creatures - wendigos and animals alike - echoed around them and made Chaewon’s anxiety flare. 

“Did you ever figure out what she was?” She asked as soon as the lights of the town were in sight. The sun was setting, the girls had been at the house for nearly the entire day it seemed. 

“No,” Heejin shook her head. Once their feet were on the pavement, she took the lead once more and made a beeline for what Chaewon could only assume was her and Yeojin’s house. “My best guess is that she was simply a ghost that had lived for too long by herself and had gone crazy in the process.”

“It kinda makes sense,” Yerim said from behind them, her breathing a bit ragged, “I mean… if I was left alone in a mansion by myself for 200 years, I would start to make up some new schemes for anyone that wandered by.”

“How she got the wendigos to go along with her is what really puzzles me,” Hyunjin said, “I thought those two types of spirits avoid each other usually?”  
  


“I thought you didn’t like this kind of stuff, Hyunjin?” Chaewon was asking before she could stop herself. Yerim laughed, her voice ringing through the early evening air. 

Hyunjin snorted and cast a hand through her auburn hair. “I… no, I don’t. Not really.” 

“Liar.” Heejin sang. “I totally saw you looking up Wikipedia articles last night before bed.”

As Hyunjin began to mumble to herself in a rather upset manner, they made a sharp turn into a gated community, one that reminded Chaewon of her own neighbourhood. 

Chaewon thought about what Hyunjin said. The whole reason why Hyejoo didn’t leave in the first place was because of Haseul, right? And she didn’t explicitly say how the other girl had died. 

“Could…” Chaewon said as Heejin hopped up the steps of one of the closer houses and began to fumble with her keys. “Could Haseul have been the wendigo? The head one, I mean?” 

Heejin’s hand stilled as it unlocked the door. 

“That was my theory, too,” The girl said quietly. “It doesn’t matter anymore, though.” She held up a finger to the girls and let Chaewon enter first. “They’re gone, and soon you will be too. And I mean that in the nicest and most caring of ways.”

Being in a different house for the first time in over two years was slightly overwhelming. Yeojin threw her baseball bat on the nearby couch and began to unpack her backpack. Hyunjin disappeared into another room and quickly emerged with bottles of water that she distributed to the girls. 

Once everyone regrouped, Heejin led them down into the basement. It was when she was walking down the stairs did she realize Heejin and Yeojin’s family kept all their witch material hidden - upstairs seemed to look like an average home to two teenagers and their family, but downstairs was a whole other story. 

Skulls of various species lined the walls leading down the stairs, and bottles of potions similar to the ones in the photo of the two girls and their grandma were stashed on shelves that reached the ceiling. If it weren’t for the large pink lava lamp in the corner of the room and a poster with cats on it, Chaewon would’ve thought she was stuck in the 1800s with how outdated everything seemed. 

It all reminded her of the house. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind of those thoughts. 

_It’s done, Chaewon. It’s over._

Heejin moved to the side to grab a few materials from the shelves, and Yeojin took the lead, guiding the group into a side room. There were unlit candles covering the floor in a circle, and a mat with an odd symbol sat in the middle. 

“You have to sit on the rug, Chaewon.” Yeojin directed before disappearing into the main room. Chaewon obeyed, suddenly a bit more nervous than before. She didn’t want to mess up the ritual all because of her clumsiness. 

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Yerim said, sitting outside of the circle and clapping her hands. “As much as I love having you here, I’m so excited for you, Chae!”

“I’m excited too,” Chaewon breathed, folding her legs in. “I mean, I think. I also feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“Me too,” Hyunjin grumbled, sitting beside Yerim. Yeojin and Heejin quickly rejoined them, the latter spreading a few herbs and rocks out on her lap when she was seated. 

The girls got busy with lighting the candles and setting the items around the circle. Chaewon couldn’t help but watch with fascination. 

“This is a lot of work to put in for just one spirit,” Chaewon mumbled, a bit self-conscious.

Heejin sat back and brushed her hands on her pant legs. “Well, I usually don’t have to go to such lengths, but it’s a special occasion.”

Chaewon sucked her cheeks in to avoid the intake of breath she was about to take. “Really?”

“Of course,” Yeojin said, her voice suddenly more serious and making her seem a lot older than she actually was, “We care about you, Chae. You’re family.”

She swallowed back a tremble in her voice. “You’re my family, too.”

The girls all seemed to smile at her - even Hyunjin, who looked a little freaked out over the whole situation. Heejin arranged for the living girls to all hold hands and looked Chaewon dead in the eyes. 

“Are you 100% sure that you’re ready?” She asked. 

Chaewon took a moment to think.

Her old life had been more or less forgotten about a long time ago. There wasn’t anything left for her to return to at the house, and she could only mill around Heejin for so long. 

“I’m ready.” She said with a firm nod. Heejin nodded back, closed her eyes, and began. 

The ritual was similar to something out of a movie. Heejin spoke words in another language, deep voice rumbling through the small space and reverberating in Chaewon’s head. 

A few months ago, had someone asked Chaewon if she would be upset if her old friends chose not to attend such a ceremony, the answer would be yes. 

Now, Chaewon thought as she looked upon the four girls she had gotten to know, she didn’t mind the missing presence of the people that had gotten her into this mess. Her current friends were with her at the moment, and if the past two years had taught her anything, it was that sometimes it’s best to not dwell on the past. 

Tears found their way to her eyes again. They brought a smile to her lips - even if she had cried more than enough in one day, at least this last time will be for a much happier reason than the others. 

A gasp made her jolt her attention to her friends. The girls, minus Heejin, were all staring at her. 

“Chaewon,” Yerim said breathlessly, “I can see you.” Hyunjin nodded numbly in agreement.

As if a button was pushed, her waterworks began, and the tears cascaded down her cheeks. She glanced down at herself and found that her body had started to sparkle, if only slightly. The tips of her fingers glowed a soft white, and her hair felt like it was being lifted by the wind. 

Somewhere in the back of her head, she could feel it. Feel the urge to finally let go - something she had been waiting for in what seemed like decades. 

“Thank you so much.” She let out, her voice ringing through the air. Heejin opened her eyes as her foreign speech came to an end. 

Heejin let out a small smile in return. 

“See you on the other side, Chae.”

To humour them, she gave a firm salute, and then she was off. 

But even as her body and mind soared through the sky, zooming at an unbelievably fast pace to the clouds, her separating mind thought of one last thing. One tidbit of information from the wendigo pamphlet in Yerim's backpack. Something Heejin should've known by heart. 

_Wendigos are immune to fire._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .....Yeah. 
> 
> This really went the exact opposite of how I expected it to go.
> 
> If we're being honest, I wanted this fic to be a light and cute story. Turns out I don't have a singular bone in my body that is able to write anything without a fucked up side to it. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think <3

**Author's Note:**

> My Twitter is @iysith - I have more AUs on there if you’d like to check out more of my works!


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